Kamen Rider Kabuto: Earth Z
by MrLuciferrr
Summary: After the "slightly altered" events of the main TV series, the world and the Kamen Riders faces an unprecedented danger far more deadlier than the Worm themselves. Toei and Shotaro Ishinomori own Kamen Rider and all other related material. I own only my original characters.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hey guys, I reposted the story, and please, R&R!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

**Prologue**:

Negishi had nowhere to run. He was surrounded by ZECTroopers and the Masked Riders Kabuto and Gatack. Negishi felt betrayed, he had admired Kabuto and Gatack had promised to help with their plan. Negishi started beating up the ZECTroopers and soon turned into his native form, attempting to attack the dazed riders, who had just defeated the Gryllus Worm.

"KABUTO!" Negishi yelled. Just then, Dark Kabuto ran out of nowhere, destroying the worm with a rider kick. The riders had won the war against the worms.

The riders slowly took off their respective Zecters, and releasing them. They fell to the ground, exhausted from the battle.

Kagami, still wounded from his first bout with Gryllus Worm said "We did it."

"Yeah," Kusakabe said, weakened from his massive energy drain.

I'll only tell you this once, walking the same path…is merely a test of perseverance. But reaching paths together is…"

Tendou was cut off by Kagami. "…friend, are those words from your grandmother?"

"No," Tendou said, "they're my own words."

"Good choice of words," Kusakabe said.

"What are you going to now Kusakabe?" Kagami asked.

"I don't know…" the native said.

"I suggest a new identity, there can't be two Tendou Soujis," Tendou said, half- jokingly.

"You're right," Kusakabe said, "See you around."

"Wait, where are you going? Kagami asked. Kusakabe turned around as he stood up.

"Exploring, I want to see more of the world, see what I missed all this time I was locked up," he said.

"Good choice…I guess. Good luck, friend," Tendou said. Kusakabe nodded, and Kagami and Tendou watched him go…

"It's over, it's finally over," Kagami said. Tendou nodded.

"Kagami!" "Shishou!" Misaki and Renge called as Tadakoro followed them. They soon began their reunion.

Months later…

Tendou is in Paris, months later. A chubby man, a famous scientist named Oswald Boker, asked, "Are you the famous Tendou Souji?"

Tendou replied, by saying "Walking the path of Heaven, the man who will rule everything." After they both walk away, Boker says to himself, "He's one of them."

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><p><strong>About 3 months after the events of the series…<strong>

"The world has been in much tragedy. The alien worm species have existed on our world, for a very long time. It is thanks to the technology of the Zecters, that we were able to finally destroy every last one of them. There are many of our soldiers that have been lost, killed, and defeated in the long war, but we will all remember the dead. There are also the masked riders, who have valiantly devoted their lives into exterminating the worm, but some deserve honorable mention. We congratulate ZECT second-in-command, Arata Kagami, Masked Rider Gatack, my son, for his valiant efforts in defeating the worm," Riku Kagami, now the commander of ZECT again announces. Kagami quit his recent job as a policeman, and was now devoted to making the world at peace. Over the years, much had to be done. Many ZECT facilities have been closed and demolished, but many other Zecters were created. Many riders were soon created, with ZECT having a Masked Rider army.

"I would also like to congratulate Tsurugi Kamishiro, CEO of Discabil Corp., also known as Masked Rider Sasword, for his valiant efforts in battling the worm and also helping fund for many of our projects." Tsurugi was killed by a powerful worm, but was revived through one of ZECT's early prototype projects, when the Sasword Zecter had Tsurugi's DNA. He was the only subject to be revived, as the machine broke down from a severe power overload. He was reunited with Misaki and they have been engaged a year before.

"I shall congratulate Daisuke Kazama, make-up artist, also Masked Rider Drake, for his efforts in fighting the worm, even facing a situation where a worm had mimicked him, where he valiantly stood up for himself against the other riders. He took excellent care of Yuriko Takiyama, a former amnesiac, where I think extra applause should be fine." Kazama retained his job, but barely touched the Drake Grip. He often visited 'Gon' but was very busy after the Gryllus Worm incident.

"One person we should really be thanking…is Tendou Souji, Masked Rider Kabuto, the first one. He has seen things we haven't, and was a huge help in defeating the worm. What I describe of him cannot be put in words, nor is he here today. But ZECT still thanks him, he has endured through many hardships and distrust from ZECT but is now a valuable ally." Riku had finished his speech soon enough and stepped down from the podium. The audience soon broke away and went their separate ways.

"I heard Tendou was in Paris on some cooking trip," Misaki said to Tsurugi.

"He's been there for a long time now, and I sure he's still there. Let's just hope he isn't that arrogant towards other cooks," Tsurugi replied.

Kagami came over and laughed. "Tendou hasn't changed a bit, but I heard he was in Montreal then Sydney, now I don't know where."

"Traveling I see, he always wanted to see more. After all, he's the one that walks the path of heaven," Daisuke Kazama jokingly said. All of them chuckled.

"The good thing is that now there are more riders, the workers at Area Z have been busier than ever. There seemed to be a rider of every kind of animal!" Kagami exclaimed.

"And I thought it was only just insects too," Daisuke said. Just then, Kagami got a phone call.

"Hello there? Oh, I'll be there right away," Kagami said. For the first time in months, he seemed shocked.

"What is it?" Tsurugi asked.

"A space rock just hit outside New Dock City, scientists think it's a worm," Kagami said.

"Was the rock a big one?" Misaki asked.

"No, it's pretty small, they said, but it's still dangerous. I'll catch with you all later," Kagami said, then ran off into his motorcycle.

Kagami soon landed at Dock Airport, where he was driven to a secret laboratory. A Masked Rider soon approached him.

"Mr. Kagami. I'm Masked Rider Legart. I'll direct you to the laboratory. Once you approach, please wear a gas mask," the masked rider said.

"Thank you, but why the gas masks?" Kagami asked.

"The scientists say the worm is different from most, you should ask them for more information," Legart said.

As Legart led Kagami into a large facility, a scientist greeted him.

"Kagami Arata, I am Oswald Boker." he said.

"Ah, aren't you that famous biologist everyone has been hearing about?" Kagami asked.

"Yes, and I ran into Tendou in Paris, you two were a dream team, ha-ha," Boker said.

"Well what's the problem with the worm?" Kagami asked.

Boker led Kagami into a room, where several scientists were examining the worm. When Kagami saw the worm, he told one of the scientists something, and then went back to Boker.

"It's already dead?" Kagami asked.

"It died via impact on the surface. As far as we concluded, it is unlike any worm ZECT has faced, it is different from the rest. It's not even a native. So far we've concluded it's a different type of worm all together. It's not like the ones you guys fought," Boker explained.

"It doesn't look like a worm much either," Legart said.

"Worms can look like anything, but they're all hideous as hell," Boker remarked.

"We need to dispose of the worm body, it could be dangerous," Kagami decided.

"Further investigation is required first, we may find something extraordinary," a scientist said. Kagami felt reluctant, but he was sent a text message.

"Please meet at the San Francisco ZECT facility as soon as possible, you have been chosen an ordered to lead ZECT's first space mission."

While Kagami headed to the SF ZECT facility, the scientists at the science laboratory started to feel weird a few hours after.

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><p><strong>A few hours later...<strong>

"The alien worm is affecting the scientists somehow," Boker said to Legart, but Boker was soon aware that Legart was affected too. Two scientists from the ZECT facility came outside with Boker.

"What's the story?" a scientist asked.

"The alien worm's infecting the scientists inside," Boker said.

"But how?" the other scientist asked.

"I think the worm had an effect on the scientists and Masked Rider Legart from contact," Boker concluded.

"We need to dispose of the worm immediately, I'm sure nobody wants another plague going around," the first scientist said. Boker nodded. After an hour, the worm was dipped in a giant tub of lava, but it seemed that even with the worm gone, the scientists and Legart remained damaged.

Meanwhile, in the SF ZECT facility…

Kagami arrived at the facility, and he was told to go into rider form for the time being. ZECT's new space commander, Jinguji Maki, walked over to the ten riders.

"This is ZECT's very first space mission. We will explore the planet Mars, on foot, for aliens," Maki said. Some of the riders had reluctant faces.

"With all due respect sir, why are we going to Mars when the other countries have already sent out rovers and shit years ago?" a rider asked.

Maki cleared his throat, "The cameras of the rovers were not clear enough to find any species. Many of the samples the rovers had taken back had no trace of alien anything. But recently, one of our rovers, the Éclair, has after much examination, been confirmed to have found an alien artifact."

"That's where we come in," Kagami said, understanding most of the situation.

"Yes, this is why we need riders to go explore Mars for extraterrestrial life. Use force if necessary," Maki said.

"YES SIR!" shouted the riders in unison. Maki led them into a walkway to the ship _Vorpal_, where they all buckled up, readied the engines, checked all the weapon systems, and were soon ready to take off.

"Alpha system, checked!" a rider said.

"Beta system, checked. Ready for takeoff," another rider said.

"Alright, let's get ready to go," Kagami said, at the pilot's seat. The boosters soon fired to life, and the riders onboard prepared for a long mission.

"**5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Blast Off! The Vorpal has taken off, I repeat, the Vorpal has taken off,"** Maki said. Mission Control cheered out loud.

"Alright guys, let's roll," Kagami said. Within minutes, the Vorpal escaped out of Earth's atmosphere and into the depths of space…

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><p><strong>8 hours later…<strong>

While working on their other current experiment, the lab workers started to scream in agony and clutch their faces. One started to repeatedly hit his head on the floor. The masked rider, Legart, was not spared as well. The Centipede Zecter started to react violently, sending electrical surges to the rider.

"I'm seeing a whole bunch of shit! Ahh!" one infected scientist yelled.

Boker and three other scientists opened the door.

"What's happening?" he stammered.

"Dr. Boker! The worm must've infected them with a disease," one of the scientists said.

"My fucking god, they're going insane," another one said.

The infected workers kept screaming, but one by one, all of them stopped squirming and shaking, their skin turned into a rotten color, and they fell dead with their eyes still open. Legart also fell down.

"Get the Zecter out of his belt!" Boker ordered.

The scientists tried, but the Zecter wouldn't budge.

"It's stuck in place, Dr. Boker," the third scientist said.

"Shit!" Boker said, throwing his clipboard down onto the ground. "I want every one of them in a water tank for examination right now; we need to know what happened to them."

The scientists proceeded to follow his orders, not knowing the catastrophic events that would eventually occur…

* * *

><p><strong>Epilogue:<strong>

"Dr. Boker, we need you to go to ZECT main headquarters to report everything that happened," Riku Kagami said on his phone.

"I can't right now! One of your riders have died along with half my scientists, you expect me to go over there!?" Boker yelled. Riku sighed.

"These orders come from the Japanese government, I am only a messenger," he said.

"Well fuck your government, I'm busy with all this shit," Boker said.

"Dr. Boker, we need you here, now. What you have encountered may trigger a zombie apocalypse; we need you to report your findings so that everyone can perhaps prepare for something coming. This is an order, over." Riku hung up the phone right after. He sighed.

"What'll be of the world now…"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 **

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><p><strong>Unknown Area<strong>

"With the infected all confirmed for dead, many sources have simply said that the worm from outer space is the cause. The scientific research was left incomplete and abandoned as ZECT and the government did not want any casualties. Dr. Oswald Boker, leader of the project, was not able to find any specific reason of cause and-"the television was cut off. A man with sunglasses and robes on quietly got up and went to the kitchen. He quickly whipped up some dinner, ate the slight morsel, and then walked to another room. The well-built man then went to a cabinet, opened it, and pulled out a belt. It was a ZECTER belt, but the man just sighed and put it back in, then shut the cabinet door and walked out the door. He sighed.

"What's going on now…" he said quietly.

* * *

><p><strong>Inside a weapons factory in Shibuya…<strong>

"Hurry! Take that weapon and get out of there," a rider said to fellow henchmen. After the destruction of the worms and the release of many other Zecters, some riders defected to criminals, and formed mobs and gangs and cartels.

This particular rider was a rider called Percepine, his Zecter based on a porcupine. The rider's armor could shoot out spikes in all different directions, and he had a spike-saber as a weapon. His henchmen weren't riders, just men with gas masks and suits with Percepine's Zecter symbol on the back. They were armed with blade/machine guns, some stolen from local ZECT facilities, some which are made by the cartel itself. The cartel was one of the strongest in all of Japan, often gaining support from the other gangs. To ZECT, they were almost a threat.

Just then, a great wind knocked off the machine guns off the henchmen's' hands, then knocked out some of the henchmen.

"If it isn't another rider," Percepine said, unfazed by the other rider's entry. Percepine then felt a great wind coming to his direction, then pulled out his saber, intercepting the other rider's attack, but it made him stagger from the force behind it.

"_CLOCK OVER,"_ announced the rider's Zecter. It was based off a bat, which was on a unique Zecter belt, filled with gadgets instead of the standard Zecter belt. The rider himself looked something a lot like a certain superhero in the comic books.

"If it isn't Masked Rider Bat, I expected something to happen sooner or later, like a certain rider interrupting the mission," Percepine said, getting up.

"I'm going to put you in a cell, as well as interrupt your mission," Bat said in a dark voice. Percepine scoffed, and then readied his saber. Bat also got into a battle position.

Percepine let out a roar, then tried to jab Bat, who swiftly maneuvered his attack, then elbowed the villain's back, who stumbled into the wall.

"You're still weak, cartel leader, even with the Zecter's power," Bat remarked.

"I'll show you strong!" Percepine charged again.

Percepine aimed a punch at Bat, who blocked it, but in the process, Percepine managed to hit Bat with his saber. The fight continued with many punches and kicks, but none of the riders seemed to be getting anywhere.

Percepine got up with both riders kicked each other at the same time.

"I'm ending this fight and you!" Percepine shouted, and then he pulled at the Porcupine Zecter's tail, which sent jolts of electricity towards the rider's body. The spikes around Percepine's armor began to spin. "_RIDER BOMBARDMENT!"_ the Zecter announced.

Bat then tapped several buttons on his gauntlets, which then formed shock gloves over his fists. Bat tapped several other buttons, and then the Zecter announced "_RIDER SHOCK PUNCH!"_ Masses of electricity formed around the rider's arms.

"Die!" Percepine yelled. The spikes on his armor shot out. But Bat was ready, he proceeded to block all of the incoming spikes, and eventually punching the last two back at Percepine, who in shock was blasted into several of his own men.

"Get him!" Percepine commanded his henchmen, who then proceeded to rush at Bat. Bat punched one henchman in the face, and then roundhouse kicked another. Two of the men grabbed his arms, and two others rushed with knives in hand, but Batman kicked both with his free feet, then flipped the others off of him. Bat then got two bat-shaped boomerangs and threw them at some men. The boomerangs exploded at their feet, knocking them out. Bat then kicked another henchman approaching him, and did some fast punches to another one to the stomach. While the rest of the henchmen rushed at Bat, Bat got out a grapple gun, pulled one man towards him, and then Bat threw him across the other men, who went down. Bat was then knocked into the wall as Percepine recovered from his previous attack.

"You may take those men down, but nothing will defeat me," Percepine said, then rushed at Bat with his saber and pressed the Clock Up pad. _"CLOCK UP!" _

"Don't be so overconfident," Bat said, then pressed a button on his gauntlet. On the ground were several explosives Bat had planted during his entrance. The bombs detonated.

"Argh!" Percepine yelled as his clock up was interrupted and he was brought down to the ground. Bat kicked him in the face twice, causing him to roll across the room. Bat then pressed buttons on his gauntlet, then got out a special device. Bat pointed the device towards Percepine, and then pressed the button. _"RIDER EMP!"_ The device then made the Porcupine Zecter fall off of Percepine's belt, de-morphing the cartel leader. Bat put a pair of handcuffs on the criminal, then handed him over to ZECT authorities.

"He's all yours, the Spike Gang is done for," Bat said to a ZECT officer.

"Good job, Bat. You had a nice device over there," the officer said.

"It's a special EMP device to shut down a Zecter's systems, but it can only happen if the Zecter's energy levels are low. Since Percepine used up a lot of energy in the fight, I was able to shut down the Zecter, although it's only temporary. It's a one-of-a-kind," Bat said.

"Anyway, you're supposed to go to the main ZECT base, we'll take you there, Mr. Kamijo," the officer said.

Bat took the Zecter off his belt, and then stepped into the car, which had sped off.

* * *

><p><strong>Inside the ZECT facility…<strong>

"You have heard of the infection, I suppose?" asked Riku Kagami.

"I have indeed, Mr. Kagami," Haku Kamijo said.

"Dr. Boker said the infected may turn into undead worms," Riku Kagami said. "I need you to head over to the facility in Los Angeles to defend the place in case of something happening."

"That's all…?" Haku asked.

"Yeah. It is predictably, an easy job, but depending on the zombies' traits, anything could happen. Several ZECTroopers will be there as well. You're going to have to try deactivating the Centipede Zecter with the EMP device, if it doesn't work, then finish him off," Riku said.

"I understand," Haku said, and then he walked away.

* * *

><p><strong>Meanwhile in the Los Angeles ZECT facility…<strong>

"Their vitals are at zero, for now," Boker said to the other scientists.

"How long are we gonna have to wait for those bitches to wake up," a scientist said.

"Patience, Phillip, be careful what you wish for," Boker sternly said. Just then a door opened.

"Master Haku! It is good to see you, it's been a while," Boker said. "Everyone, meet Haku Kamijo, one of the world's greatest minds."

"Hahah, thanks a bunch old friend, just glad I can help," Haku said.

"First time I met you was when you were just a rich playboy, now you're a masked rider, a responsible man, I suppose?" Boker asked.

"Ha, yes my friend," Haku said.

"Mr. Wayne, do you compare yourself with um…Tendou Souji?" a scientist asked.

"Well, Tendou is a much more capable man than me, I just wished he was here…" Haku said.

"It's not time to worry about Kabuto, let us focus on the main problem here," Boker said, and then he walked over to a large computer.

"I've recently discovered some interesting facts about the twelve deceased. So basically, right now they are not dead, they are merely in a stasis mode, eventually waking up in due time. We've brought out one body, tried to dispose of it. It appears the skin of the deceased ones have become more stronger, being immune to extreme conditions but the brain waves react violently when we try to burn it, meaning that the body may have a found weakness in fire," Boker explained.

"We've tried stabbing their hearts and all the necessary organs and body parts needed to survive. On most zombies in legends and such, a hit to the brain may result in instant death of the zombie. But however, the zombies are in stasis, which mean we can't kill them in the meantime, and we don't want to try anything else," another scientist said.

"This is odd, which makes it extremely hard to kill them," Haku said. "Hang on, I need to try deactivating Legart's Zecter with the EMP device."

Haku got his belt, attached it onto his waist, and then put the Bat Zecter on the slot. _"HENSHIN!"_ the Zecter started to flash and it formed the armor of Masked Rider Bat around Haku. "Cast off," Bat said, and then he pushed the button on the Bat Zecter's "head", extending the wings of the Zecter. _"CAST OFF!"_ the masked armor flew off of Bat, almost hitting the scientist, the scattered pieces soon disappeared.

"Time to get it off him," Bat said, and then he pushed a few buttons on his gauntlet. The EMP device was taken out of his belt. Bat pointed it towards the dead rider and pressed the button. But nothing happened. Bat pressed it again but nothing happened, again.

"Goddamn it! Dr. Boker, can you lend me a laptop for a sec?" Bat asked.

Boker gave one to him, then started looking at the Centipede Zecter's systems and vitals. "It's… the Zecter is at extremely low power but I can't seem to shut it down. It usually shuts the Zecter down when it's low on energy," Bat said.

"Give me that for a second," Boker then pressed some buttons and more, soon the scientists, Bat, and Boker saw some charts.

"So, the first chart describes how much power the Zecter has been using. Even if the Zecters have an unlimited supply of energy, they still lose power through too much usage, making the Zecter have to recharge itself. Right now, the Zecter is operating on low power, but the Zypherio Crystals (small crystals of pure energy made to power the Zecters) that are powering the Zecter batteries are at full power, which may be why the device isn't working. In a nutshell, the Zecter has full power, but it is currently running on low power, using less of the Zecter's power through its use. The second chart describes the Zecter's battery power, the third describes the Zecter's power usage rate," Boker explained.

"That explains it…" Bat said.

"This does not happen…at all though…it only happens if the rider is stuck on his Rider form from a malfunction, but the program doesn't detect any malfunctions on the Zecter. It's like the worm's DNA caused the Zecter to go wacko," Boker said.

"So we can't get the fucking Zecter off Legart," Bat growled.

Just then, the zombies started to shake in unison, Legart's Zecter started to flash and send shocks of electricity in chaos. The zombies had been awakened.

"Get your flamethrowers ready!" Bat yelled. The scientists and Boker all stepped back.

"Boker! Get out of here, now!" Bat yelled to the pudgy scientist, who ran off with the others. The zombies' eyes came to life, and they smashed out of their water tanks. Legart did the same. Bat pushed the button on his Zecter, and his masked armor started to fly back onto him. _"PUT ON!"_ the Zecter announced. Legart and Bat began to have their battle.

At the same time, the ZECTroopers guarding the scientists started blasting their flamethrowers, forcing the zombies back in fear.

"Come on you bastards, get burnt!" a ZECTrooper grunted.

"Eat my fucking flames, shit-holes!" another yelled.

"Go back to hell!" a third yelled. A zombie soon rushed forward, and the ZECTroopers concentrated on him, and the zombie disintegrated into ashes. The other zombies surged forward, while some were forced back, the rest of the zombies charged at the ZECTroopers.

"Ahh!" one yelled as he was bitten, then he ran off.

"Wait! Stop! You're getting everyone killed you bastard!" a ZECTrooper yelled to the bitten trooper before being bitten himself.

"Burn me before I become one of those stupid shits," the trooper said, lying on the ground.

"But commander!" the others shouted.

"Do it!" the commander ordered before he was disintegrated into ashes. The troopers kept firing upon the zombies, trying to keep them at bay.

Meanwhile, Legart had bitten through his own mask and was trying to tear through Bat's armor, but Bat was very skilled and had dodged every attempt. "Time to bring you down for good," Bat said, then threw three Batarangs at the zombie rider, who clocked up and bit a chunk off of Bat's armor.

"Damn it!" Bat yelled. At least the zombie rider hadn't gotten through his skin. Legart soon clocked up out of the room, with Bat in pursuit. As Bat managed to go to the living room, he found the front doors already broken through and Legart running to a busy industrial area.

"Fuck!" Bat yelled, but the zombies were attacking the troops, and Bat couldn't let more zombies get out of the building. Bat ran back to the ZECTroopers. _"CLOCK UP!" _the Zecter announced as Bat got to the scene a second later, he blew up several of the zombies' heads with exploding Batarangs, but some of the ZECTroopers were already infected and clutching to their wounds. Bat heard a voice through his speaker.  
>"Bruce, I've completed an analysis of the zombies. It seems in their current state of matter, they lose most of their personalities and knowledge, but their physical strength is dramatically increased and of course, the parts with the hunger for human flesh…" Boker said through a call.<p>

"Goddamn, and Legart got away Boker," Bat sighed as he kicked a zombie in the head, knocking its brain out in the process.

"You let him get away? It'll infect all of Los Angeles!" Boker cried.

"There's another rider approaching Legart, I've already informed him of what's happening," Bat said.

"Let's just hope that rider knows what he's doing," Boker said.

"Of course the rider knows what he's doing, it's Drake," Bat said.

"DRAKE?" Boker said.

* * *

><p><strong>SOMEWHERE IN LOS ANGELES<strong>

**"**_RIDER SHOOTING," _announced the Drake Zecter as it powered up to fire a shot.

"Let's kill you, bitch," Drake said, then he fired. Drake yelled at the same time. The rider's head soon exploded.

"Bruce, it's done," Drake said. But Drake felt a sudden pain on his arm, he looked at it, and he found out, Legart had bitten him in the arm…

* * *

><p><strong>ZECT FACILITY IN LOS ANGELES<strong>

"Die you freaks," Bat said as he battled the zombies. There were two more, and he had brought the rest down. The remaining ZECTroopers suddenly rushed forward, burning the zombies into a crisp.

"Drake, it's contained here," Bruce said. But unbeknownst to him, two zombies managed to escape the fight…

"Bruce…I-I'm infected. Legart bit me…" Drake groaned.

"No, no, no!" Bat yelled, and then he kicked a table.

"No, it's okay Bruce. I've been expecting it…jut-just don't tell Yuriko and the others about it…-"the transmission was cut off. Bat was breathing hard,

"Come on troops, we have to go back to main base, immediately," Bat said. The troopers followed him as he went off into the night…

* * *

><p><strong>Epilogue<br>**Daisuke Kazama had written a letter, printed a portrait of him, and went towards the sea, letter and picture in one hand, Drake Grip in the other. He felt like he had already had done enough. He looked at the letter one more time, and then he put it down on the ground. He also put the Drake Grip on the ground on top of the letter, and finally, his hat.

"Sayonara…" he said, and then he dived into the river.

As Kazama jumped into the water, a man came towards where Kazama jumped. He picked up the letter, and then read it out loud.

_Dear friends, I can no longer continue life due to a tragic combat incident. I hope you all understand. I've met many good people in my life, and I wish to thank all of them for guiding me to the right path. If I have done anything to make you dislike me, I hope you all forgive me. Thanks for being supportive throughout my life. _

_ Sincerely,_

_ Kazama Daisuke_

The man then folded the letter, and picked up the Drake Grip. He also took the hat.

"You were indeed a good friend after all, Kazama," the man said.

The man walked away with the possessions, suddenly hearing frantic cries and zombie groans. He sighed.

"I'd better move out of this town…"

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Notes<strong>

**Masked Rider Bat is based off of Batman, as some should've noticed.**

**To the Drake fans, don't kill me please, it was a hard decision to make as the other riders have another role in the story.**

**The Bruce Wayne in this story is named after his DC counterpart.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

"Shit!" shouted TheBee as zombies came from every direction. He kicked one away into the lake below, then punched two who tried to approach him. Shadow Troopers at his command were slowly backing up towards a dead end, trying to kill the undead. _"PUT ON!"_ announced the TheBee Zecter as the armor hit the approaching zombies and formed back on TheBee.

It was two weeks after the incident at the Los Angeles ZECT facility. TheBee was sent along with two other riders to assist Bat in trying to clean up Los Angeles before the outbreak went anywhere else. Clearly, the attempt was failing.

Elsewhere, Bat and the two other riders, Masked Rider Luchs and Masked Rider Leopardo were having their own battles. Bat ducked under a zombie's incoming 'karate chop' and threw a batarang at the zombie's head, exploding it into pieces, two more approached him, and he sprayed explosive gel from his gauntlets and detonated it, blowing the other two up. Luchs used his Rider Claws and slashed at two zombies' heads, then did a sweep at another, tripping it before Luchs jabbed at the zombie's head with a claw. Leopardo used his claws and jumped on a zombie's back, then ending its 'life' with a swipe at the head. Leopardo threw the corpse at several others, bringing them down as well.

TheBee remembered how those two became riders, they had been street thugs. Their names were Garfield Jones and Sylvester Lynns. TheBee had been the one to apprehend them when they tried to break into a house. Weeks later, TheBee was captured by a villainous rider, but it was Jones and Lynns that had broken him out, and the Bobcat and Leopard Zecters chose the duo. During the time, TheBee wasn't very experienced himself, as the last two owners of the Zecter had gone rogue and their whereabouts currently unknown. James Perez (TheBee) himself used to be a delinquent, until a rider had arrested him but decided to ship him to the ZECT academy, a place for training people to be ZECTroopers. Perez 'graduated' and became a trooper, soon rising to a captain, until one day the TheBee Zecter had chosen him, and his mentor decided to further train him.

But then, his training was cut short because he was sent to Los Angeles. He promised his mentor he would return in one piece, but now Perez was uncertain.

Back to the battle, Bat grunted as a zombie flew straight at him, making him stumble back into two zombies, who tried to chew threw his armor. Luchs finished stabbing one in the brain when he saw Bat being ambushed.

"Haku!" Luchs cried as he jumped into the herd of zombies, then after freeing Bat from the zombies' grip, they both stood back to back as they fought the zombies. Bat used his grapple gun and as it hit a zombie's head, he swung the zombie towards a few others, sending them tumbling towards the ground. Luchs got out a ZECT Claw Gun (based on the designs of the Kunai Gun) and started to shoot at the zombies, finding the weapon much more efficient.

On the other side of the battlefield, Leopardo got his own Claw Gun out and shot a zombie's head at point-blank range. Leopardo also shoved his claw straight threw the neck of a zombie before twisting his hand upwards towards the skull. TheBee did a left cross on the head of a zombie, and then round-house kicked another. TheBee then got out a special device and attached it onto his leg. As he made a kicking motion, a strong laser bolt struck several zombies in the head, killing them instantly. Inside his mask, James grinned. The device was a Wave-Motion Leg Cannon, where when a kicking motion is made towards the opponent, a strong laser is sent out to decimate it.

"Hey Perez! Need…some help over here!" Leopardo shouted. TheBee cursed himself; more zombies had approached the other riders while the riders on TheBee's side of the battlefield had diminished.

_"RIDER CHARGE"_ announced the Leg Cannon as TheBee pressed a button on the cannon. Energy began to form around TheBee's right foot. TheBee pressed the button again. The energy on his foot began to refine itself until it shaped itself into a giant yellow ball of energy. The leg cannon announced _"RIDER WAVE"_

"Hi-yah!" TheBee shouted as he round-house kicked the energy ball. The energy ball started to form itself into a wave-like object made of pure energy.

"Get out of the kill zone!" TheBee shouted. The three other riders nodded and began to roll away. The wave hit the rest of the zombies and a very big explosion ensued with a lot of zombie guts flying everywhere.

Bat and the other two feline-based riders ran up to TheBee. At almost the same time, they took off their Zecters and the armor started to deform. As they went back to normal, James raised an eyebrow over the clothes they wore.

Sylvester Lynns was wearing a tuxedo with very dirty but recently polished shoes. Garfield Jones was wearing a tank-top with boxing gloves on the side of his pants, and Haku Kamijo was wearing a ZECT uniform. James himself was only wearing jeans with a ZECT T-shirt. He had found it surprising ZECT actually made T-shirts with the logo on the front.

Haku then got out a phone, which was ringing. As the other three stood quietly around, Haku then cursed.

"What's the story?" James asked.

"More zombies spotted throughout different locations in Los Angeles. I told Mr. Kagami to tell ZECT officials to quarantine the city in case of anything else," Haku said.

"And how long will that take?" Sylvester asked.

"About a few days at least…" Haku sighed.

"Zombies would escape easily…" Garfield replied agitatedly.

"That's only if they do it the complicated way. But they are setting up force-fields, even then, the delivery would take about a few hours," Haku said.

"Zombies can still escape easily," Sylvester groaned.

"The zombies are at three separate locations, we can split up and approach them by Clock Up," Haku said.

"That's actually a good idea," Sylvester said, and Garfield nodded.

"The worst part is…Mr. Kagami wants me back to escort the transport plane," Haku said. "You guys have to deal with this on your own."

"We got it, don't we?" Garfield said.

Haku nodded, then he light-sped away after transforming back into Bat. James then pulled out his phone after receiving a text.

"Hey guys, the three locations. Squads of zombies are at Hollywood. Another group is settling in on Griffith Observatory, apparently attacking humans. Wait a minute…there are even more groups at separate places, but ZECT's sending riders in," James said, and then sighed with relief. But Sylvester and Garfield's faces were filled with horror.

"Wouldn't that just make more riders vulnerable to zombie bites?" Sylvester asked.

"Then it's a trap," Garfield said.

"But we can't freakin' convince Mr. Kagami, we just gotta take down riders who are infected," Sylvester growled.

"Bruce just sent me the other locations…Olvera Street's being invaded, the Walt Disney Concert Hall's burning, some are lingering near the La Brea Tar Pits, and some are entering the Capitol Records Building…" James said before Garfield put a hand towards his mouth.

"Just. Stop," Sylvester growled.

"Okay, okay got it," James said.

"We gotta clock up over to those places," Garfield said. The other two nodded, then all three of them transformed, then clocked up away.

* * *

><p><strong>Up in the air…<strong>

"James, you gotta stop them," Haku said. He was in a fighter jet, flying next to the large transport plane carrying two forcefield generators that would be activated in two separate places, the La Brea Tar Pits and Disneyland.

"You think I am not doing that? There's too many, where the hell is that transport plane!?" James asked while grunting.

"An hour away! You guys think you can last?" Haku asked.

"Yeah sure, maybe with a tank, these guys really hit hard, they can somehow detect our  
>Clock Up movements!" Garfield shouted.<p>

"What the hell…" Haku said.

"Good thing is Sasword's leading a squadron of riders across the other locations, but who knows if they'll last?" James asked.

"James…the reason for bringing the force field is…Mr. Kagami intends to nuke Los Angeles within the forcefield so the threat doesn't get to anywhere else…" Haku said.

"So that's what it's all about…he's really going to fucking nuke Los Angeles?" James shouted. Haku then hung up the phone, he had enough. He sighed, thinking about the possibility of something else happening after Los Angeles.

"What's the story down there?" a female voice asked. It was the pilot of the transport plane.

"I don't think you have clearance for that," Haku said.

"It's just us both in the air, what's wrong?" the pilot asked.

Haku then cleared his throat, "You mind telling me who you are exactly? I can tell you're not from ZECT."

"Oh, how'd you figure that out?" the pilot asked.

"I have my ways," Haku said, smiling.

"Alex Walker, formerly Special Forces," the pilot said.

"I see," Haku said.

"You got something wrong for once, I've heard of you, Haku Kamijo," Alex said, smiling.

"Everyone makes mistakes, Ms. Walker," Haku said, smirking.

"Anyway, I just got into ZECT a month ago. Now they're telling me to transport a forcefield generator to the middle of Los Angeles without giving me details," Alex grumbled.

"ZECT does have a lot of new people, after the worm incident. I was one of the first new ones to join though," Haku said.

"Hmmph, and you're even a rider," Alex scoffed.

"We're approaching Los Angeles, we better get ready. And stay behind me, there could be something you don't want to see," Haku said, changing the subject as well as giving her a hint of what was coming.

"Gotcha," Alex said.

* * *

><p><strong>La Brea Tar Pits<strong>

Sasword backed up as a zombie brought a fist downward, then ducked under another's arm then sliced the two zombies' heads off.

"God, this just keeps getting better and better," he thought to himself as he brought his sword down on a zombie's head, splitting it into two. Two zombies then approached him from the side, but Sasword cut off the torso of one and kicked the other away.

The other riders at his command dispatched themselves all over Los Angeles. Sasword had just recently found out about the zombies' abilities. He forced himself to go back into Masked Form after the zombies almost chewed threw his armor. Before that, he was clocking up and beating the hell out of some unaware zombies until a few had stopped it, clearly being able to see his movements. Sasword found himself not used to fighting in this form, but it was something he would have to make do with if the zombies had to continue. But he knew soon that the transport plane carrying the forcefield generator would arrive.

A zombie then head-butted Sasword into a pool of tar, but he got up and stabbed the zombie's head. Sasword then put the Sasword Zecter's tail down and then reset it to its default position, and energy and venom started to circulate around the Sasword Yaiver. _"RIDER SLASH"_

Sasword let out a battle cry, then started slashing at the zombies, at which they all soon exploded.

"That was fun, let's do it again," Sasword said sarcastically. Soon, the transport plane had arrived and landed. Bat then hopped out of his fighter jet and nodded at Sasword.

"Where's the thing?" Sasword asked.

"It is right here, heh," Alex Walker said.

"You let a pilot go out on the battlefield? I thought the agreement was only drive and then fly back," Sasword asked with a surprised voice.

"You can't keep a good soldier down," Bat said, shrugging.

"Well, what happened here?" Alex asked.

"In a nutshell, zombies," Sasword said.

"Oh…so that's what it's all about…" Alex said.

"Come on, we gotta set the generator," Bat said. The three then ran to an area where there wasn't much tar, and soon set the generator on the ground. Bat then set the codes to activate it. The top of the generator, a satellite dish-like object started to glow. The screen on the generator started uploading energy contents.

"Um…guys?" Alex stammered.

"What?" Bat asked.

"I think some zombies are here!" Alex shouted, and then got out a gun. Bat sighed.

"Tsurugi, I think you better help her…" Bat grumbled.

"With pleasure," Sasword said, and then he got up and sliced a zombie's head off. As Alex and Sasword started killing the zombies, Bat saw a mass army of them approaching from the hills. Another small group started to "run" over from the other side.

"Shit," Bat said. Hoping that the generator would stay safe, Bat then got up and clocked up around the zombies, spraying some explosive gel in a circle. Bat then got an exploding batarang and threw it at the gel, exploding several zombies and stumbling several more. Bat got two more exploding batarangs and hurled them at the zombies. Bat then threw a small grenade-like object towards the other zombies, and soon after, several of them flew up in the air.

"Bruce!" Sasword grunted as he was kicked in the shin by a zombie. Alex screamed. Bat then growled and hurled himself into a zombie attacking Alex, Bat then started to beat up the zombies with his shock gloves. As a zombie had its hands on Alex, Bat came up from behind and ripped its head off, tossing it to the side.

"You hurt?" Bat asked Alex.

"No, they didn't get me," Alex said, breathing in short huffs.

"Watch the generator, I'm helping Sasword," Bat said.

"But the zombies over there!" Alex pointed at the hill. It turned out the batarangs hadn't lessened the crowd of zombies, and as Bat rushed back towards the generator, many of the zombies were closing in.

"Get your hands off that generator!" Bat yelled as he did a flying kick which knocked a zombie down. Alex reloaded and then went back towards Sasword, shooting one that was aiming to bite Sasword's arm. The fight went on, but too many zombies had arrived and soon they were trashing the generator, destroying it.

"No!" Bat yelled as he ripped a zombie head off. He rushed over to the generator, but it was already in ruins. TheBee, Luchs, and two other riders then appeared next to Bat.

"What are you guys doing? Help Sasword!" TheBee said to the other two riders, who then rushed over to help a struggling Sasword.

"Bat, what are we gonna do?" Luchs asked.

"The nuke plan is still going, but we have to improvise without the force fields. Most remaining humans here are already evacuated, with a high chance some of the damn civilians are infected, but we can't stop them all. It's better to eliminate most than none. Mr. Kagami will most likely launch a rider force to stop the stragglers," Bat explained.

"Is it best to keep to the plan?" Alex asked, coming over.

"It's our only option. Better having a hundred zombies than a thousand," Bat replied. Alex rolled her eyes in response, and Luches shifted uncomfortably. Just then, Sasword and his helpers rushed over.

"We took care of them, some others escaped," the first rider said.

"One almost bit me, those things are dangerous as hell!" the second exclaimed.

"It's good you're safe, but we have to notify Mr. Kagami. He'll know what to do," Bat said confidently.

Alex sighed, thinking to herself, _"Does he really think Mr. Kagami will know what to do?"_

* * *

><p><strong>Main ZECT Base<strong>

A large group of riders were walking to a giant auditorium. In the back, Riku Kagami and a well-built man in a ZECT uniform were lagging behind.

"We need to keep up, Mr. Kagami," he said.

"Excuse me for my age, Draco," Riku retorted, with Draco shrugging.

Draco Stark was a very strict, but compassionate ZECTrooper hand-picked by Riku Kagami himself, knowing 7 different martial arts styles and being an expert with most weapons, Riku Kagami decided to promote him to a rider general. He was the leader of an expert rider group. Over time, their skills in combat were near rivals to Gatack's.

"What's the plan?" Draco asked.

"I'll tell you all once we start," Riku simply said. They soon came into the auditorium, with Draco's Dragon Team and another general's group already seated. Riku Kagami got onto the podium, with Draco standing next to him.

"Riders, just recently a worm had crashed down onto Earth, and infected eleven scientists and one of our riders. They turned into what we'd call zombies. One escaped, and infected a few people. In the course of twenty-four hours, the infected go through a course where they turn into a zombie. The few turned into the many, the many turned into a herd of thousands. Our original plan had to be canceled, but we have a new plan!" the riders below started to get interested and were murmuring.

"Our original plan was setting up two forcefield generators and creating a barrier around Los Angeles and then launching a NK-1000, one of the most powerful weapons on this planet. Unfortunately, the first generator was destroyed, with the second having no use. To improvise, we'll find an area in Los Angeles where the zombies are strongest. To that point, we will set a 15-mile radius mark around the area where we will then launch a nuke and slay them. You will hunt any stragglers or survivors," Riku Kagami finished then stepped off for Draco.

"Today...today...at the edge of our hope, at the end of our time, we have chosen not only to believe in ourselves, but in each other. Today there's not a man nor woman in here that shall stand alone. Not today. Today we face the monsters that are at our door and bring the fight to them! Today we are canceling the apocalypse!" Draco announced, and all of the riders below cheered.

"If we are going to stop them, we're gonna stop them now!" all the riders got up, and they started to head out into clock up ports.

* * *

><p><strong>ZECT Main Facility Clock-Up Ports<strong>

"I never really got to know how these worked," a rider said.

"Never actually been in one, or used it, or however you say it," another rider shrugged.

"You never went on one of these? We use these to transport us on missions across the globe," a third said, showing confusion in the two.

"Well, it's kinda like a portal. While we're at the port, the managers activate the railings. The railings are systems to like give us a jumpstart for about a short while. We enter the portal via Clock-Up, and the railings just kinda push us and we fly away. It's kinda like Hyper Clock-Up," a fourth said.

"Ha, like when you're fast, you still needa go faster," the first one said.

"Amazing how you two are part of Unicorn Team and you never went into one of these. Your team has all the missions for themselves," the third grumbled.

Most riders are put into teams, where the most powerful riders are leaders who handpick their subordinates and comrades themselves. There are 6 teams in all, with Unicorn and Dragon teams the strongest, with Lion, Bat, Griffin, and Scorpion as the others. The original riders who fought the worms don't have teams, with the exception of Sasword, who leads Scorpion team.

"I never understood why Mr. Kagami had to put riders in teams anyway, we work just fine individually," said one of the Unicorn members.

"Draco doesn't like it when we don't get hard missions sometimes," a Dragon member said.

"Speaking of which, where is he…" a rider asked.

"He's on a shuttle with Faisal Dunkshovie, the Unicorn team leader," another explained.

Just then, Draco's voice was heard very loudly.

"_GO TO YOUR PORTS AND BLAST OFF, MEETING AT THE HOLLYWOOD SIGN."_

Soon, all the riders went into the ports and were off the facility. Unbeknownst to anyone, a rider based off a Japanese rhinoceros beetle was spying on the riders for the whole time. The rider shakes his head slightly.

"They're heading for a trap, they have no idea what's going to happen." The rider then escaped out of the facility and out of sight. The rider then looked at the Drake Grip, wondering who to give it to…

* * *

><p><strong>Hollywood<strong>

As the riders all approach the Hollywood sign, some zombies were lurking by, and they finished them off without any injuries. Just then, Draco and Faisal landed.

"Alright, the nuke's coming in a few hours later. Over the course of this time, while me and Faisal plan and prepare, I'm going to make a change for you guys. Route the zombies to Griffith Park, which is where the nuke is going to be launched. I'd rather have all than some," Draco said. "Do what you gotta do now, and let's finish the fight. Who's with me?" the riders chanted "Aye" in agreement. Just then, Sasword appeared with Alex, Bat, and Luchs.

"Took you long enough," Faisal grumbled.

"Everywhere on the streets are these zombies, you expect us to get here in a heartbeat?" Luchs said.

"Where's James?" Draco asked, James Perez was in his team.

"Out with Kaeru and Raptor, they'll be here a bit later," Sasword said.

"Why's a girl here? She has no clearance," Faisal said, staring at Alex with narrowed eyes.

"Enough with the clearance, she saved Sasword's life," Bat growled.

"I'm just gonna walk around near here a bit," Alex said. "I won't be long."

"Be careful, you got a gun?" Bat asked.

"Here, use this," Draco said, then tossed her a ZECT Kunai Gun.

"Thanks," Alex said, then went off. She walked into a clearing, where she started to look at the ruins of Los Angeles, she thought it was surprising to see the Hollywood Sign still intact. She sat down with the Kunai Gun on her lap, and started to think about the Special Forces. She missed her friends there, and started remembering her missions there. She also thought of that one day it was under attack by a criminal group. Debris was about to crush her, but a mysterious man in strange bug-like armor had saved her but ran off before she had the chance to say thanks. She looked up, and then saw several zombies headed towards her.

"Goddamn it, I was lost in my thoughts," Alex thought. She picked up her Kunai Gun but before she had the chance to fire, something very fast hit the zombies and after a few more hits, guts were on the floor. Alex recognized it immediately, a rider in clock-up.

"Um…Haku? Tsurugi?" Alex asked.

"I'm not any of them," the rider said. His Zecter announced _"CLOCK OVER"_. Alex immediately recognized the rider.

"You're the one that saved me and the Special Forces!" Alex said. She walked over to the rider, but he stopped her.

"Don't try to thank me, it was merely a matter of looking for worms. Amongst the special forces there was a worm hiding, Benton Rackham. He was destroyed, fortunately," the rider explained.

"Why are you here? Are you helping Draco and Faisal?" Alex asked.

"I have nothing to do with them, I came to give you this," the rider said. The Drake Grip was in his hands.

"Why, why me?" Alex asked, with surprise in her mind.

"I see determination within you. Don't tell your superiors just yet, they'll figure out themselves," the rider said.

"Aren't you going to help them against the zombies?" Alex asked.

"Unbeknownst to them, zombies are already appearing in another place, Reno. I'm stopping the zombies there, good luck to you," the rider said.

"Um...thanks?" Alex asked uncertainly. But the rider was already walking away, with his hand near the Clock-Up pad.

"Wait! Who are you anyway?" Alex asked.

The rider glanced back at Alex, and then he said, "Walking the path of heaven, the man who'll rule everything." And he was not seen again.

* * *

><p><strong>Hollywood Sign<strong>

TheBee and the other two riders arrived at the Hollywood Sign, and the other riders greeted them.

"What's the story down there James?" Bat asked.

"They're routing them alright, but it'll take a bit longer than expected. Some zombies already made their way out of the city, and we thought it was better to eliminate them before they got away. So I told some others to go search for zombies out of the city…" TheBee said.

"A good move, I grant you that," Faisal said, playfully punching Draco.

"Hmm," Draco nodded slightly in agreement. Alex then walked back over.

"So, how was your little rest?" Sasword asked.

"It was good, I was just observing the city and thinking about stuff," Alex said, clearly leaving out the details of the rider who gave her the Drake Grip.

"Okay, well when the riders are done, and the nuke is about to drop, we should get you back to the facility," Bat said.

"Why? I kinda wanna stay here and help," Alex said.

"It's too dangerous for a non-rider, and I don't want to risk losing one so inexperienced," Sasword said.

"Alright fine," Alex said.

"I'll go with her," TheBee said, taking his Zecter off his brace.

"Ha, good. The lady needs an escort anyway," Draco said.

"We'll see you, once victory is assured," Raptor said. Kaeru nodded in agreement. James started to walk with Alex, and waved towards the group.

"So, you remember where you parked?" James asked Alex.

* * *

><p><strong>A few hours later…<strong>

"Zombies are routed sir," a rider said. "No reported casualties."

"Good. Alrighty guys! The nuke's in the air and we're going in!" Faisal said. The riders then clocked up towards a hill near the blast zone.

"Alright riders, visors up to see what goes on after the nuke," Draco said. "It'll be hard seeing through all that dust."

The plane with the nuke hovered several thousand feet above the zombies, and then dropped the nuke.

"Oh yeah, and watch out for incoming objects," Faisal said, then he got his Unicron Spear and put the Unicorn Zecter in the Zecter slot. _"HENSHIN!"_ The armor materialized onto him, turning him into Masked Rider Unicron. Draco then got his Dragon Staff out, and saw the Dragon Zecter flying towards him. Draco grabbed it, and put it on his staff. The Zecter announced "_HENSHIN!"_ and the armor materialized onto him as well, turning him into Masked Rider Drago.

"Riders, get into Masked Form," Drago commanded, about twenty-five Zecters announced _"PUT ON"_.

The nuke hit the surface, and a giant mushroom cloud rose up in the air, many zombie screeches were heard, and everyone cheered. Drago then viewed the dust through his visor along with some others, and they were shocked.

"Holy shit! Are you seeing this crap?" a rider asked.

"The fucking zombies are mutating!" another yelled in anger.

"No, this isn't supposed to be happening…" Faisal said.

The nuke had eradicated and vaporized some of the zombies, but the rest were mutating and started to show forms of more strength. Some grew spikes on their arms. More regular zombies also started marching behind them.

"Riders! We'll clock up down the hill then use Put On. Then we fight as hard as we can! Use your Rider Form only when necessary!" Drago shouted. The riders let out a cry and rushed down the hill.

Many riders then used their finishers and wiped out the first wave of zombies, but more were incoming. Draco then pressed the button "One" on his staff. The ends of the staff started to glow red.

Drago's Dragon Staff had a unique weapon system. There were four buttons with each one having a different function. 1 would power up the staff ends, 2 would enable one of the ends to fire a laser beam, 3 would release ZECT Mizer bombs that attack the enemy, and 4 would make the staff operate as a javelin, where one end of the staff grows a blade.

Drago swiped the head of a zombie, then started to throw punches and kicks to two others, Drago found it hard to deal some damage, as the mutated zombies' skin was now a rough armor-like skin. Drago roared and pressed 3, launching out Mizer Bombs on some of the zombies fighting other riders.

"Use the Mizer Bombs!" Drago yelled in the chaos. Some riders shot out the little bombs, while some zombies were heavily hit or destroyed, others were unfazed by the little critters. Over elsewhere, Unicron was swinging his spear wildly, decapitating some zombies and "injuring" others. Other riders were fighting valiantly, but Drago clearly knew the aftermath.

Drago then gathered a group of riders and the ones with fire-related weapons tried to keep the zombies at bay, but the mutant zombies seemed to not have the fear. Drago then pressed "2" and started firing lasers at the zombies, doing massive damage. The battle went on for 2 hours, and in the meantime, few riders were bitten by the mutant zombies. The bite of the mutant ones didn't turn their victims into mutants, but just regular zombies, although the zombie-turning process was alarmingly faster. Drago found himself pitting against Luchs, who was bitten and soon trying to infect Drago.

"So much for honor and skill!" Drago yelled as he sliced Luchs's head off and killed another zombie. Drago was getting tired, and he knew what he had to do.

"Dragon Team, retreat! I repeat, Dragon Team, retreat!" Most of his team and some Unicorn team riders clocked over to Drago.

"We gotta get outta here, where's Faisal? Where's the rest of them?" Drago said to the riders.

Unicron gathered the rest of the riders and they were soon surrounded on a large hill.

"Never give up! Fight until the end!" he yelled.

"Faisal! We gotta retreat!" Drago screamed.

"That is for fucking losers! Fight on!" Faisal retorted.

"You stupid piece of shit! We can't win this fight!" Drago walked up the hill, knocking zombies away. Unicron then pulled off his finishing move, _"RIDER SLASH_" and he swiped Drago back towards the other riders.

"I'm not leaving this fight," Unicron shouted. "You can retreat if you want you coward! But that's not stopping me!"

"You're fucking insane!" Drago shouted. "You'll die!"

"Then I will die fighting!" Unicron shouted, and then he rushed towards another zombie. Drago knew he couldn't convince anyone else, they were too focused on the battle and driven on revenge and blood and victory. Drago was in great pain from Unicron's move.

"Come on, we have to go," Drago groaned. Several of the Unicorn riders stuck a middle finger at Unicron.

"You fucking traitor!" one shouted.

They managed to make it back to the shuttle and the nuke carrier, but out of the thirty riders that went to the mission, only eighteen would make it back.

"What happened?" the nuke pilot asked.

"We lost, the impossible happened. Now get us outta here," Drago commanded. The nuke pilot agreed and started the plane. Drago was uncertain of the future, but all that mattered was the safety of the rest of the riders and getting back to report to Mr. Kagami. Drago felt like he lost hope. He felt like he failed his team and the rest of ZECT.

"What's going to happen now?" a rider asked.

"We gonna attack them back?" Raptor asked.

"I'm not sure what Mr. Kagami wants…" Drago said. Drago knew the zombies would be spreading across the United States, and soon the rest of the world.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

**Alex Walker is a character borrowed from iceangelmkx, credits to her and thanks for letting me use her.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Prologue:**

_"RIDER KICK!"_ a Zecter announced as many zombies were dazed from the hyperspeed attacks of the Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle-based rider. The rider let out a shout and then did hyper-fast kicks on the zombies, destroying each one of them. As the dust cleared, the rider sighed.

"Reno's okay, for now," the rider said.

The rider had just recently learned of the riders' defeat in Los Angeles. The tragedy had encouraged the rest of the U.S. to quarantine themselves as best as they could. Much of California had already been populated by zombies, as their numbers rose by the thousands. The rider had helped created a wall between the borders of California and Nevada. Even so, the zombies were spreading.

"Hey Arashi, how is Reno?" a man asked.

"Clear, the zombies are cleared for now. They'll be back," the rider said. The rider had taken the alias Arashi Satuko to avoid suspicion and for safety reasons. Every new place he went to defend the world from the zombies, he took a new name, occasionally successfully.

"Good, we're gonna have to get a daily check on the Nevada Wall from now on, a zombie snuck through, but was killed before it got anywhere," the man said.

"I'm aware of the situation, thanks Mr. Clane," the rider said, he hung up the call.

"Hanging around in the States now huh," another rider said, the voice was familiar.

"Yaguruma," the rider said.

"Not just him," there was a third.

"Kageyama," the rider said.

"It's no use keeping an alias, we know who you are," Yaguruma said.

"I thought you two were dead already," the rider said.

"You had disappeared as well, Kabuto," Kageyama said, saying the rider's name in a dark voice.

"I knew some rider would find me. Instead of picking a fight with me, why don't you hunt down the zombies?" Kabuto asked.

"Funny story, old friend. We're never going back to the light again," Yaguruma said.

"Aniki's right, we are the darkness," Kageyama said.

"So be it then," Kabuto said. "I'm sure you're fully aware you cannot beat me."

Kageyama scoffed, and Yaguruma smirked. Kabuto heard the Hopper Zecters bouncing, and they soon made their ways towards their hands.

"Henshin," they both said, then stuck the Zecters into their slots. _"HENSHIN"_ the Zecters announced both at once as the rider armor formed around them. _"CHANGE KICKHOPPER" "CHANGE PUNCHHOPPER," _the Zecters announced. An ominous silence filled the air.

The Hoppers let out a battle cry then charged at Kabuto. Kabuto simply ducked through both of their punches, and then kicked KickHopper in the back. He then did a sweep on PunchHopper, who tripped and fell. KickHopper got up, and jumped at Kabuto. Kabuto grabbed him and swung him away, not before PunchHopper hit him with a punch right at the chest with Kabuto stumbling back.

"You're getting shabbier, Kabuto," PunchHopper sneered. In reply, Kabuto again tripped PunchHopper and landed a karate chop on his chest before he hit the ground.

"I return the favor," Kabuto mumbled. KickHopper was then running towards Kabuto, and Kabuto clocked up and elbowed KickHopper from behind.

"And I thought I was just getting shabby," Kabuto said. Both riders growled and hurled punches at Kabuto, but he caught both and kicked both in the stomach.

"Okay, no more mister nice guy," PunchHopper said.

"Let's go," KickHopper said. Their hands shifted towards the side of their belt, and they pressed the pads.

_"CLOCK UP"_ the zecters announced as the Hopper Riders began tossing Kabuto around. They finally kicked him off towards the wall of a local inn. But Kabuto looked unfazed.

"I thought your Zecters weren't designed to use clock up," Kabuto remarked.

"Save it, we had an upgrade," KickHopper said coldly.

"Shut up and fight," PunchHopper said, then rushed at Kabuto.

Kabuto sighed, and then he blocked some of PunchHopper's attacks, then got out his ZECT Kunai Gun, turned it into axe mode, and started to slash at him. KickHopper then kicked him in the knee, causing Kabuto to bend down, but Kabuto regained his composure and then blasted KickHopper several times with the Kunai Gun. Kabuto then activated clock-up and slashed at the two riders with his Kunai Gun in Kunai form.

"Why do you even try," Kabuto mused. PunchHopper growled, and then activated his _Rider Jump. _PunchHopper jumped high in the air, aiming a punch right at Kabuto's face. Kabuto then inputted the button sequence (3, 2, 1) and then switched the Kabuto Zecter's horn to its default position…

"Rider…Punch," Kabuto said, then he flipped the horn switch again, and the Kabuto Zecter announced _"RIDER PUNCH"_. The energy charge surged through the Zecter, to Kabuto's horn, and then to Kabuto's fist. PunchHopper continued to fly downward until Kabuto narrowly dodged the Hopper's attack, and hit PunchHopper in the stomach, making him fly backwards into KickHopper. PunchHopper groaned in pain as his armor deformed.

"Give it up," Kabuto said.

"And I thought your Zecter couldn't do a rider punch," KickHopper said, sounding interested.

"I also had a few upgrades," Kabuto admitted.

KickHopper then ran towards Kabuto, where they exchanged several punches and kicks until KickHopper made the wrong move with his foot, Kabuto took advantage of the mistake, and thrust his Kunai Gun towards KickHopper's throat.

"I win," Kabuto said, and then blasted KickHopper with the Kunai Gun. KickHopper crashed into some fences and then his armor deformed. He chuckled as he got up.

"Strong as ever, heaven-walker, you still have more yet to come," Yaguruma said.

"I'll be ready for it," Kabuto said. Yaguruma then picked Kageyama off the ground.

"What was the point of this?" Kabuto asked.

"Preparations for your little spat with the undead," Kageyama grunted.

"Hmmph, you provided me quite a challenge. But why'd you attack me?" Kabuto asked.

"I thought we were so-called friends," Yaguruma looked up.

"I don't think much of each other as friends," Kabuto said. "Don't give up the light, you haven't lost everything."

"I did when I lost the Zecter," Yaguruma said, referring to his past as Masked Rider TheBee.

"You both did, and you should've stayed in the light," Kabuto said.

Kageyama chuckled, "No use, no use."

"Yaguruma, you should make that tofu dish for me again. I hope you hadn't lost your cooking skill," Kabuto said.

"Maybe soon, maybe never," Yaguruma mused.

"Aniki, let's just go. See you around, Kabuto," Kageyama said, sneering at the word Kabuto. As they walked away, Kabuto sighed.

"I'll never understand those two," he said, and then he walked away as well.

* * *

><p><strong>ZECT Main Facility<strong>

"What the hell happened out there?" Mr. Kagami asked.

"We lost," Draco said miserably.

"Casualties?" Mr. Kagami pressed.

"12," Draco said miserably again.

"I'm going to ask you again, what happened out there?" Mr. Kagami asked.

"Your nuke didn't work for shit," Draco growled.

"How?" Mr. Kagami asked.

"Some of the zombies were instantly vaporized, the others were mutated. More zombies came from other directions, some we didn't even know of. We had a full check on the city, but those zombies came in from elsewhere," Draco said.

"And where is Faisal?" Mr. Kagami asked more.

"Dead, he went insane, attacked me, and forced the rest of the riders to help him," Draco growled.

"What of Team Unicorn?" Mr. Kagami asked.

"Half of them are still okay," Draco said.

"Good, because I'm placing James Perez as leader of Unicorn," Mr. Kagami finished.

"I lost men too Mr. Kagami, you're going to shorten my command as well?" Draco demanded.

"Team Unicorn has fewer men, and we need to even out the teams," Mr. Kagami replied.

"That means the other teams have more men," Draco growled.

"A necessary step, you're dismissed," Mr. Kagami yelled.

Draco sighed, but then stomped out of Mr. Kagami's office.

"I don't get what the hell that old man is thinking," Draco thought. He came over to James and Alex, who were chatting with several Unicorns and Dragons.

"James, you're dismissed from Team Dragon. From now on, you're in command of Team Unicorn, orders of Kagami," Draco said.

"Me? Really? That's surprising!" James said.

"This isn't a joke," Draco growled. "We don't have enough time to make jokes now."

"Well, I'll take the offer," James said, shrugging.

Draco then went off, going into his dorm. He heard several Unicorns approve of Kagami's order.

"Fuck this shit," Draco said to himself, then he fell asleep.

* * *

><p><strong>Somewhere in the ZECT facility<strong>

Alex felt Draco's pain. She was placed in a Special Forces squadron when she had almost none experience, she was later placed in her original role, but to her squad, it wasn't much of a bad idea.

When she heard of their loss at Los Angeles, she knew there wasn't going to be a happy ending. When she tried asking Draco, he flipped her off in anger.

"I'm just trying to be helpful!" Alex had said.

"Just go away," Draco had growled.

She never knew the reason why, but Faisal Dunkshovie had attacked him ferociously, as she heard from some riders. Alex had guessed the attack traumatized him, and he felt that he couldn't rely on anyone anymore.

"I feel bad for him," Alex had said to James. James had been a good friend to her, and she was beginning to like him.

Just then, a strong wind had blown her all the way to the courtyard. Alex looked around, wondering who would carry her all the way out here.

"Hey," a familiar voice said. It was Kabuto, but Alex didn't know it yet.

"Why are you here?" Alex asked harshly.

"How's the Drake Grip," Kabuto asked.

"I've never used it yet, if only you had been in the battle," Alex grumbled.

"I was busy," Kabuto mused. "Reno had zombies too."

"I forgot. But we lost," Alex growled.

"They already lost when that plan was orchestrated. If the force fields worked, it would've been even disastrous," Kabuto said, staying calm.

"How?" Alex asked.

"It all made sense. The radiation from the nuke had mutated the zombies, enhancing them. Some zombies were vaporized just because of too much radiation. If they had used the forcefields and the NK-1000, the zombies would have even more strength. They would've clawed right through the forcefield and most of the U.S. would've been infected by now. When I heard about Riku Kagami's plans, I knew he was a dumbass after all," Kabuto explained.

"So the zombies did us a small favor…" Alex realized.

"You'd be a fool thinking the zombies would help us. The chaos isn't their fault, it's the worms'," Kabuto said.

"They're the ones causing everything right?" Alex asked. Kabuto nodded.

"You were in America that time weren't you?" Kabuto asked.

"Yeah," Alex said.

"No wonder you never knew. The worm days were one of the darkest, I faced many troubles. Most of my friends already moved away to other places, even my sister moved with my friend Hiyori," Kabuto said.

"You feel like you're home now huh?" Alex asked, crossing her arms.

"Start helping out, use the Drake Zecter," Kabuto changed the subject.

"How do I know if it's ready for me," Alex asked.

"Hmmph, it's already flying above us," Kabuto said. "Just raise the damn grip already and call to the Zecter."

Alex felt anxious, but reluctantly, she raised the Drake Grip up in the air, where the Zecter soon placed itself on the top.

"Good, it has chosen you. Press the trigger," Kabuto mused.

Alex did, and the Drake Zecter announced _"HENSHIN"_ and armor started to form around Alex. It was one of the coolest things she had ever seen happen to her. Soon the armor had fully enveloped around her, and she looked at herself in a puddle. She looked amazing.

"Welcome to the riders," Kabuto mumbled.

"Um…thanks," Alex, now Masked Rider Drake said.

"Pull the lever on the back of the Zecter," Kabuto instructed. Alex did so, and the armor felt like it was about to fall out.

"This must be what it feels like to be in Rider Form," Alex thought. Knowing what to do, she said "Cast Off" and the armor flew off of her after she pressed the trigger.

_"CHANGE DRAGONFLY" _the Drake Zecter announced. Alex felt proud, knowing that she was a rider and that she could start helping out combat the zombies. But she also felt clumsy and big in the armor; she knew she couldn't fight just yet in it.

"I know what you're thinking. You're thinking you couldn't fight in that thing," Kabuto said.

"How'd you know?" Drake asked.

"Forget the questions; I'll be training you for a while now and then. In the abandoned park. You'll need to test your rider abilities. I was never a great teacher, but it's time to perfect the art of teaching," Kabuto said.

"Do you know how to do everything?" Drake asked.

"Work is as sticky as _natto_, I know this is gonna be a long journey," Kabuto said.

"Ha, are you going to show me how to clock up?" Drake asked.

Kabuto simply pointed to the pad on the belt, they both instinctively pressed the pad at the same time, and Kabuto started to speed away.

"This feels awesome, let's try it out!" Alex exclaimed, and then ran after Kabuto.

* * *

><p><strong>5 Months Later<strong>

Over the past 5 months, Alex had been secretly training with Kabuto so she could use the Drake Zecter's powers perfectly. During the time period, much of America was already overwhelmed by the zombies. The riders and ZECT were allying themselves with China and America to war with the zombies.

Alex had never revealed she was a rider to the rest of "her kind" yet, she felt that doing so would shame Daisuke Kazama. One time, Alex got depressed because she and James had a big argument. Alex didn't know what to do, so she disappeared and found Kabuto resting in the park.

"Kabuto…I don't know what to do. I don't know what's going to happen," Alex had cried.

All he had said was "If you wish for it, fate will always be your ally."

"You think this will turn out alright?" Alex asked.

"If you wish it to be so, luck will always be on your side," Kabuto said.

Surprisingly, she found herself liking Kabuto's Zen-like phrases; she felt she was having a teacher she never had before. Some things about Kabuto had troubled her, especially about why she never saw Kabuto in his human form. She had asked him, but he refused to do so. He had shown her his house one day, and while she was napping on a couch, he actually took his rider belt off and cooked a meal for the both of them. She found herself liking the rider a bit, but she still had some feelings for James. After that day, Kabuto never actually took off his Zecter.

"Angels descend during meals, therefore it is a sacred time," he had said.

Back to the present, he had stopped training her a few days ago, saying her training was complete, and he had other things to attend to. She decided to tell Riku Kagami of her training and her being Drake, and after he told Draco and Haku, the three decided not to tell anyone.

She and James had not reconciliated after their argument two months ago, and she didn't feel like starting now. James was mainly focused on helping the Unicorn Rider Team get back on track, and Alex had been training with Kabuto. Her training was something she could never get from anyone else.

She decided to go to her dorm and take a rest.

* * *

><p><strong>Riku Kagami's Office<strong>

"We're staging a mass attack on the zombies. While we know nuclear weaponry will be obsolete, we'll use our maser cannons from the sky and the ground," Riku Kagami said.

He was sitting with Haku Kamijo, Draco Stark, and Tsurugi Kamishiro, discussing battle plans against the zombies.

"It's been a long time since we staged an attack on the zombies. They already went from a thousand to a couple hundred thousand," Haku said, suddenly slouching.

"Over the time, they could've become more powerful as well, or gained new abilities to use against us," Draco said.

Draco was still very steamed over the loss of part of his team, but he got used to it and got over his trauma. Faisal Dunkshovie was history, he couldn't torment him anymore.

"Like what if they learn how to fly? Our air forces would be overwhelmed," Tsurugi pointed out.

"Our maser cannons are currently one of the most powerful artillery weapons on the planet. As I have learned from our good friend Kabuto, the radiation from our nuclear weaponry enhances them. Our maser cannons fire pure and deadly energy," Kagami rasped.

"Then maybe it's time to show who's dominant," Haku said, slamming a fist on the table.

"We must take caution. We have learned a lot from the zombies, and we don't want any repeated mistakes," Kagami said.

"We'll learn not to make'em," Tsurugi said.

"That is a hard thing to do," Kagami replied.

"What if the cannons give the zombies even more energy?" Draco asked.

"Rest assured, we've captured zombies and tested that maser cannons are the best thing to use," Kagami said.

"If somehow it doesn't work, it's going to fall on us," Haku said.

"What weaponry are the Chinese and the Americans using?" Tsurugi asked.

"Standard machine guns, basic army weaponry," Kagami said before Tsurugi finished.

"Well, that's fine," Draco said.

"On the other hand, not all zombies infect. Some just eat humans for food," Kagami said.

"So there's a slight chance some of America was just eaten?" Haku asked.

"ZECT scientists conducted tests. Lab-produced human flesh was made, the scientists tested on 20 zombies. 12 zombies simply bit into the flesh, the other 8 devoured it," Kagami explained.

"So some go for infection, others for food," Tsurugi said, counting his fingers.

"Right, and how will this information help us in the battle?" Draco asked, crossing his arms.

"I don't think it will, but it is good to know," Haku said.

"When will we take action?" Tsurugi asked.

"Tomorrow right when the sun rises. We'll be at the battlefield before, but once the sun rises, we fire and charge," Kagami said.

"What will the riders do?" Draco asked.

"I'm afraid during this assault they'll be the reserves, we can't risk any more riders in combat with the zombies," Kagami said, staring at Draco.

"There's a chance that the riders that were 'left behind' in the battle of Los Angeles were infected and would be roaming around with the zombies as well as trying to disable the maser cannons and infect our forces," Haku said, showing the group a screen of the last few moments of the battle, including Faisal attacking Draco and the group being surrounded.

It gave Draco the creeps, he never wanted to know what happened to them, and he was curious about why Faisal attacked him, or on top of that, went insane.

"Good point, I'll change the battle plan, having the riders simply DEFEND the maser cannons, nothing more. Standard ZECTroopers are going to be using machine-blade guns and flamethrowers," Kagami said.

"Understood," the three riders said.

* * *

><p><strong>Unknown Area<strong>

Faisal Dunkshovie was alive.

How? He never knew, but the only thing he knew was that his rider belt was gone. He couldn't call to the Unicorn Zecter to retrieve his belt, the Zecter was out of his control as well.

For five months, he hid underground. He found survival gear, as well as some weaponry and armor. He had been fending for himself.

He wasn't even in the battle.

Before the battle began, he remembered getting his rider belt from the camp room. Then he got knocked out. Before he went unconscious, a man looking strangely like him took his rider belt and left. The last thing he knew was that his body was dragged off into somewhere in the city.

He was lucky he was immune to the zombies' bites. They had already bit him twice, for a long time nothing happened, and the wounds healed.

As he walked towards his run-down TV, he sat on a broken couch. He knew on the news what his imposter did. He attacked his comrade, Draco and rallied as many riders as he could to their deaths. His imposter killed those riders.

Faisal immediately knew who the imposter was during that time, it was a worm impersonating him. And worms were immune to the zombies.

"Why are the worms still here?" he had thought.

Faisal was lucky he had found a rider belt and even the Zecter had responded to him. Faisal wasn't the proud leader of Team Unicorn anymore, just a rogue rider living underground away from his comrades, who think he is a traitor. He felt happy the Zecter chosen him.

It was the Leopard Zecter. He immediately knew that Sylvester Lynns had fallen in combat, probably by the imposter. Faisal was the 2nd Masked Rider Leopardo.

He didn't like the idea of being Faisal Dunkshovie anymore, as the imposter had made evil of him. He cut his hair and he became almost bald, which would've been a good look on him, if it weren't for all the dirt and the beard.

He felt bad for the loss of respect, Sylvester had been a good team member, a very good friend, and Faisal felt shamed for inheriting the Zecter.

"If only I'd been more careful…" Faisal thought.

Faisal could only think what would happen now, but as he listened closely, he heard a ship in the sky.

* * *

><p><strong>Aboard ZECT Aircraft<strong>

"Where are the cruisers? Sun is rising in a few minutes," Kagami asked over the phone.

"They're almost at the right locations," Draco said.

"Los Angeles cruiser, in position," a pilot on Draco's ship grumbled.

"Oregon-Washington cruiser, in position," another said.

"Nevada-Idaho-Utah cruiser, in position," a third said.

Each cruiser was soon in position, with transport ships carrying the trucks and soldiers.

Draco felt that the world didn't have much time, ZECT was launching their largest mass attack ever with the rest of the world defenseless. All their main forces were in America. Only the New England states were safe. A giant forcefield network was built protecting the very few states remaining. Draco didn't feel very confident, as in the last battle they lost heavily when winning was a great chance. Draco felt that ZECT was going to fail. But he was in no place to object to his superiors, and he just hoped for the best.

"The sun is rising…" Draco said to himself.

"Cheer up dude, we're going to win," Haku said.

"I dunno, Haku. Last time we all thought that, and we lost. I have a feeling that the world's in store for more surprises, bad surprises," Draco said softly.

"If we can't protect the Earth the zombies can be damn sure we'll avenge it," Haku growled. "The riders, us, are Earth's hope. If we can't defend humanity's hope, then what can we do?"

Draco didn't answer, and Haku walked away.

Draco had a dream, a vision depicting humanity's fate. It showed the upcoming battle, and the humans had lost. A voice had said, "Humanity deserves this fate. Your forces will vanquish, the world will slowly crumble, until humanity cease to exist. It doesn't matter how long it takes, the world will fall!"

For once, Draco had seemed to lose hope, but he couldn't show this lack of confidence towards ZECT. He had to try.

"We're going in," Draco said, and then he went down towards the teleporter where he landed on a maser cannon truck. About 200 trucks and dozens of ZECTrooper squadrons were having their guns ready. The rest of the battalions would be in position.

"Sun's rising on our side, attack is commencing," a rider said on the comlink.

"Firing at will," another rider shouted.

"The sun will be rising, Draco," Haku said. They both took out their Zecters. Draco stuck it on his staff, Haku inserted it on his utility belt. They became Masked Rider Drago and Bat respectively. Bat got out some batarangs, Drago pressed "2" on his staff.

"Let's roll," Drago said reluctantly. The sun then rose, the ZECTroopers yelled "Victory", the trucks accelerated forward, and the zombies then ran slowly towards the ZECT forces.

The trucks then fired their cannons. The zombies had managed to form ranks, but the front line of zombies vaporized. Riku Kagami was right, the maser cannons worked. But there were countless zombies behind them. Drago fired at zombies in the head with his staff, with Bat throwing batarangs at their heads and exploding or frying them next to him.

"Watch out!" Bat shouted as two zombies leapt at Drago, with hands aimed at his head, but a spray of bullets had blown their heads off. Drago and Bat looked behind, it was Drake.

"Alex! I thought we told you to stay out of this!" Bat exclaimed.

"Can't keep a good soldier down," Alex retorted, who fired at more zombies.

Drago didn't mind, but he was worried about her being infected.

"Stay close to the two of us," Drago said.

"Gotcha," Alex said.

The maser cannons had almost decimated the zombies at Los Angeles, and they were covering good distance. In the air were several fighters that also fired at the zombies. Drago wondered how things were going at the other places.

Suddenly, he saw some weird looking zombies far away, like they had new features of some sort. Behind them he also saw some giant ones, and Drago was trying to figure out how that happened.

"Fighters, take out the giants in the back," Drago commanded. The fighters flew overhead and fired at the giants, but the maser cannons did no apparent damage, and rocks flew right out of the giants' hands, destroying the fighters. "How the fuck did the zombies turn giant? Did they evolve?" Bat asked.

"I don't know but we have to keep fighting!" Drago shouted, he suddenly had an adrenaline rush, and he felt more confident all of a sudden. More giants appeared as the basic zombies were nearly vanquished.

"The zombies are darn smart, they know formations and shit," Drake said, who fired several "Rider Shooting" bolts at a giant, one stumbled and fell on another.

"The maser cannons are doing less damage on the big guys, and the weird ones are rampaging, it looks like they have varied special powers," Drago said.

Drago was right, some blasted rocks like giants, others acidic slime, and another one took his bone out and knocked a ZECTrooper unconscious.

Two trucks exploded beside them, and another in front of them. More ZECTroopers fell beneath the zombies and what was left of them were pieces of fabric, helmet, and flesh. Still, the battle went on with maser cannons firing and zombies rushing.

"It seems hopeless," Alex said, as three more trucks exploded. "We should fall back, the other forces aren't doing much better."

"We need to keep fighting. We can't give up!" Bat growled, as he threw a small grenade at some zombies. Another fighter exploded above them, the three riders shielded themselves from debris.

"Come on!" Drago said, he jumped on a giant's neck, then pressed "4" and slashed at its neck. The giant groaned and went down. The maser cannon operators followed his example and started aiming the cannons at the giants' necks, they went down after a few hits, and Los Angeles was clear. The ZECT forces cheered

"Hey! Now's not the time to cheer in victory, we have plenty of distance left!" Bat announced, and the ZECTroopers marched along with the trucks towards another location.

Just as they were walking out of Los Angeles, a series of distress calls were heard.

"We're being defeated at Michigan!" a voice shouted.

"ZECT Trucks being trampled at Phoenix!" another cried.

"Giant zombies destroying the carriers, we need immediate backup!" a third screamed.

"We're getting pounded, what are we gonna do?" Bat asked.

"I have a plan. ZECT can no longer fight the zombies, but we can still survive for another day. A carrier with the trucks will go and fight on, trying to stop the assault. Meanwhile, the rest of us go back to main base, and we will try to defend the rest of the world," Drago said.

"All our forces are in America," Drake said.

"Many riders are probably infected or killed," Bat said.

"We gotta evacuate, hide, wait for some miracle," Drago said.

"We're giving up? What kind of warrior gives up?" Bat asked.

"We don't have a fucking choice, unless you wanna turn into a zombie and make us kill you," Drago growled.

"We, will, fight," Bat growled murderously.

"You're like Faisal, nothing held back, you wanna become like him?" Drago asked.

"No, I just…." Bat lowered his voice, but there was darkness in it.

"A noble warrior would know what to do, and as a noble rider, I suggest we retreat. There's nothing we can do," Drago said.

"Fine, but we need to help Mr. Kagami," Bat said.

"Finally you fucking understand what the fuck's happening. The zombies are probably already out of the U.S. In time, they'll go to the rest of the world, and Earth is doomed to despair. ZECT will survive, if we retreat," Drago said.

"How about the riders?" Drake asked.

"Even we can't do anything. The zombies track our Clock Up movements, there are too many zombies even if we're powerful enough to take down a hundred giants," Drago growled.

"Enough riders are dead, we can't risk anymore riders gone," Drake remarked.

"Enough are infected," Bat said.

"You're right," Drago replied.

"Which means they have the means to find us right now," Drake stammered.

"Good thing the carrier had left," Bat sighed.

Just then the three riders were hit by a series of fast slashes, they were brought down to the ground. Five infected riders appeared out of nowhere.

"Infected," Drake said, getting up.

"We gotta fight them," Drago growled, pressing "1" on his staff. Bat activated his arm blades.

The three charged. Drago took two on with his staff. He knocked one in the head with a butt of his staff, but another dodged his slash, Drago found himself going on the defensive when a rider had gotten out two pincer-like weapons and started to swipe at him.

_"A crab rider…it must've been Pincer," _Drago thought. Pincer raised both blades and brought them down, but Drago had rolled out of the way. Drago hit him in the back with his staff, then blasted him with his "2" laser, but Pincer kept walking like nothing happened.

In the meantime, Bat snapped a zombie's neck, making it dance around. He threw an exploding batarang at one, but the zombie only stepped back a few feet. The zombie whose neck he had snapped then bit his armor, and Bat grunted and ripped the rider zombie's head off.

Drake repeatedly blasted the zombie rider with bullets, but the rider's tough turtle shell was in the way.

"Come on you fucking turtle!" Drake shouted. The two riders ran toward a clearing and they started to clash, exchanging punches and kicks. The zombie repeatedly tried to bite her, but Drake's training with Kabuto had taught her a lot of methods to dodge the zombie bites. Drake folded up the Drake Zecter's wings into its scope mode, and targeted the zombie. Drake pulled the throttle, beginning the power charge. Once the charge was complete, Drake pulled the trigger, and shot a giant energy ball at the zombie, but before the ball hit its target, Drake clocked up. He did pulled the throttle and shot at the zombie 10 more times. The zombie rider was nothing but dust.

Bat and Drago defeated their opponents as well, and rushed over to Drake.

"Kabuto taught you well," Bat said.

"But we must go," Drago said.

The three riders then ran off to the nearest air station. They found a plane and flew back to ZECT…

* * *

><p><strong>2 Years Later, Underground Los Angeles <strong>

ZECT had lost, and much of the world was overtaken. The only continents left uninfected were Australia and Asia, but Faisal knew soon, that those places would be gone. Many cities that still thrived quarantined themselves very strictly, with many rules and defenses to help drive out zombies. Everyone knew that the war was lost, and what was left of humanity had to survive. Faisal knew that few riders were alive, among the ones who showed their faces on television, he recognized Drake, TheBee, Bat, Drago, and a few others.

It was literally on the headlines. "Earth Doomed To Fall From Zombie Apocalypse! The Danger Is Real". Faisal survived and thrived underground miraculously for a long time, but was almost killed by a zombie rider who managed to get past all of his booby traps. It was Kabuto that had saved him, but now he had left.

Kabuto trained him extensively, helping him with strategies and tactics he had never heard of. Kabuto had also helped him get rid of his fear of heights and let him get used to the surface again. But then, Kabuto never showed his identity, he seemed to always keep the rider armor on him.

"Must be a phobia of some sort," Faisal had thought.

After a short bout with some stray zombie rider, Kabuto had suddenly left. When he got back underground, Kabuto had left a letter saying "the one who walks the path of heaven goes elsewhere".

Faisal walked out back the makeshift door he made to the surface, and looked outside at the ruins of Los Angeles. He pulled out a cigarette and smoked it.

"There might be zombies everywhere, but it's good to enjoy the moment," Faisal said.

He had secretly hoped that somewhere out there, someone would save humanity.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: **

**The Hunger Games/ Batman Story has been postponed and it will be released next year. Stay tuned?**

**Sorry for the late release of the next chapter, some personal issues came up. I'll have it released a bit later along with the first chapter of the Caped Crusader Trilogy.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **

**I apologize for the late release, some issues came up as well as planning for other stories. I'd like to say that the release dates for each chapter would be extended due to the release of Batman: The Beginning and Pokemon: Battle of Legends- Red VS Ash.**

**Anyways, enjoy as always!**

* * *

><p><strong>Prologue:<strong>

The world had fallen to the zombies. The war against them was lost. Earth's forces had found no way to combat the zombies. The zombies constantly changed. Many stayed in their basic forms, some turned giant, and others were mutated from radiation from nukes, causing each one of the radiated to have a special ability.

Faisal Dunkshovie had survived underground for 3 years. He was trained by the greatest Masked Rider, and was taught to fend for himself. He learned to kill the giants with ease, and many other strategies to kill other zombies with a single strike. His great trainer had left, but one day, he went back to Faisal, and invited him to go to Hong Kong. Faisal was eager to go, as Kabuto was selected by the government to defend them. Kabuto also got a job as the boss of a teahouse. Faisal was Kabuto's assistant in the teahouse. At rare cases, the two riders had to go fend off zombies. The forces at Hong Kong were a force to be reckoned with.

Faisal learned of Kabuto's identity as well, as he could no longer stay in the rider form during his job at the teahouse. Faisal learned his name was _Tendou Souji_, but was nicknamed Tendon by most of the other workers and Faisal himself.

Tendou had decided to retire, as he felt like the rider job was useless, and he didn't touch his rider belt for a very long time, much less glance at it. It was Faisal's duty to keep the peace, something he did very well.

For a city in peril, Hong Kong was doing remarkably well. Most of the citizens had no fear of being attacked or invade. Hong Kong's defense systems were so advanced, zombies were almost no danger.

Faisal stood by the new Basco Wall that was built to surround the city. The wall was surrounded by a forcefield as well, just because the city was afraid of a mass invasion, and everyone had already known of the zombies' great strength. The forcefields were programmed to incinerate anyone who went through the forcefield, but occasionally, some lucky zombie would crawl through whole and Hong Kong's defenses would kick in and destroy the zombie.

Faisal pulled out a cigarette, and looked out beyond for trouble…

* * *

><p><strong>Underground Shibuya<strong>

The remnants of ZECT went to the underground bunkers after the zombies managed to invade Asia, and soon, Japan. For a while, they did well, until the zombies stumbled onto the underground paths, and destroyed ten of the bunkers. Only eight were left, and much of ZECT's staff had died in the last fight.

It was Christmas Day. Alex Walker was patrolling the bunker borders along with James Perez. It was a hard life down underground. No time for presents, or hanging up a tree, or decorating. It was war time every day. ZECT had changed for the worse, and everyday seemed to have a death in the underground.

She and James had reconciliated, but things were still a bit tense around them. A day in the underground was almost the same. Wake up, eat, debrief, patrol or do work, eat, continue work, eat, sleep. It was already three years; the routine was already too remembered. She would fight zombies daily, but she was tired.

Draco and Haku were still alive, but Sasword wanted to travel to some place, and nobody could stop him. Everyone trusted that he would remain safe. He had told her he would find help from elsewhere.

Recently, one of ZECT's supplier buildings located in Osaka had been captured by rogue riders struggling to survive. The zombies later destroyed Osaka, having most of the supply building surrounded by zombies. The rest of the supply buildings had not responded to their recent calls, and ZECT was running low on supplies. A dangerous mission to recover the supplies was considered, but it would've meant sending all the riders to fetch them and risk infection. The ZECT officials had been talking about it for days, and Alex didn't know what they would do. But she knew.

She walked inside the main bunker, where Draco, Haku, a couple riders and several other ZECT officials were discussing the mission with Riku Kagami. They were still arguing on whether the mission is initiated or not.

"If we go in that building we risk losing everyone," a ZECT official said.

"Would you rather starve to death or live?" a rider asked.

"You guys will be eliminated, and we won't be able to survive anyway!" another ZECT official.

"You can't change what we riders do and can't do!" another rider said.

"Stop this!" Alex yelled, barging in.

"And what is a minor rider doing in this bunker?" a ZECT official asked, narrowing his eyes.

"You can't control the riders' destinies, we do what we choose. You gave us the power, and we had to know what to use the power for. I got my powers, and I chose to help humanity. The riders are supposed to help humanity, defend Earth, and keep the peace. You may have sent some riders to defend the quarantined cities, but how much longer can we last without supplies. Your suppliers are not responding, you're not willing to fetch them yourselves. Why do you fear the zombies? You are being dominated by them! You have to show that YOU are dominant. Why have the humans been the dominate species for so long?"

"We took action in things," a ZECT official mumbled.

"We did what had to be done," a rider stammered.

"Then why not take action now? ZECT may have trained us for this role, or our supporters have encouraged us, but now, training is nothing! The will to act is everything! If we don't want to die out and let the zombies kill everyone, we have to act. We survived this long, and we won't go out this. We will get the supplies, so we can fight for another day," Alex announced.

The officials then shifted amongst themselves uncomfortably, talking about what they should do, but Riku Kagami wearily stood up.

"I agree with Ms. Walker. We must take action ourselves or risk dying out."

"I agree as well," Draco said. Alex gave him a surprised look.

"We have to do this, I will organize the mission immediately," Haku announced.

And at that very moment, Alex knew that the battle would soon commence.

* * *

><p><strong>Battle Bunker, Underground<strong>

"Our supply building is a 50-floor skyscraper, basically speaking, a factory," Haku said.

"Getting into the building would be extremely dangerous. A battalion number worth of zombies are in that territory. Going there would be suicide," a ZECT official said.

"It would, but not if we take a different route," Haku said, pressing a series of codes on the holographic screen.

"An 'underground railroad' will be used. A 50-year old route was formerly used by smugglers to transport goods or anything else, our scanners detect that the zombies have not reached the tunnel, nor had it been in use for 30 years. I believe that the tunnel leads to a hidden entry on the 9th floor, as there is an unused but intact lift in another hidden door that would lead to one of the high floors, close enough to the supplies," Draco explained.

"But our supplies are located on the top floors, it'll take a hell of a time and a long time just to get up there. The zombies are everywhere inside that building," a ZECT official pointed out.

"I did a full scan of inside that building by sending one of our scout drones, most of the zombies are on the lower floors and some of the staircases to the top floors are destroyed, the elevator doesn't operate, and most of the supplies are intact," Haku said, showing the officials and the riders data on the building.

"We are to infiltrate the building in four squads. One squad attracts the zombies from the left wing to another place, another would attract the zombies from the right wing to elsewhere. The two other squads will eradicate whatever is in their way, get the supplies, get more help from the last squads and escape," Draco explained.

"You riders are on your own, the ZECTroopers stay and guard everything else," the ZECTrooper general, Fujiyama Yuri, announced.

"That is fine, we wouldn't want a mass battle. This is a stealth mission," Haku said.

"What about the zombies outside? Once we draw them out, the rest will come in!" Alex asked, pointing to the picture of zombies outside the building.

"We have been setting up traps near the building recently, we'll activate them once we get to the scene," Draco responded.

"Should we use clock up?" a rider asked.

"Try not to approach the zombies during clock up. They may see us, but they can't chase us," Haku replied.

"Got it," the rider said.

"When do we leave?" another rider asked.

"Tomorrow at dawn," Haku said.

"Until then, rest up, do whatever you need to do, and then the heist will start," Riku Kagami said, and then he walked out.

* * *

><p><strong>Alex's Dorm<strong>

Alex went back to her room after her little speech and the battle plan. Her speech had inspired the scared ZECT members to finally take action. She felt satisfied, and she looked at her Drake Grip, which was held once by one of the first few riders, Daisuke Kazama. Kazama was one of the "worm fighters" and had fought alongside Alex's mentor, Kabuto. To this day, Alex had never known his identity.

Alex heard a knock on the door, it was James.

"Um…hey," Alex said.

"I liked your speech back there," he said.

"Eh, it wasn't all that inspiring," Alex admitted.

"Enough to change my mind to go attack if I were one of them," James laughed.

"Oh, you think?" Alex asked, laughing as well.

"Hey, you wanna hear this joke I heard when I was in prison?" James asked.

"You were in prison?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I used to be a…bad kid," James shrugged. "Just hear it."

"In prison: You spend the majority of your time in an 8x10 cell.

At work: You spend most of your time in a 6x8 cubicle.

In prison: You get three meals a day.

At work: You get a break for 1 meal and you have to pay for it.

In prison: You get time off for good behavior.

At work: You get rewarded for good behavior with more work.

In prison: A guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you.

At work: You must carry around a security card and unlock and open all

the doors yourself.

In prison: You can watch TV and play games.

At work: You get fired for watching TV and playing games.

In prison: You get your own toilet.

At work: You have to share.

In prison: They allow your family and friends to visit.

At work: You cannot even speak to your family and friends.

In prison: All expenses are paid by taxpayers with no work required.

At work: You get to pay all the expenses to go to work and then they

deduct taxes from you salary to pay for prisoners.

In prison: You spend most of your life looking through bars from

inside wanting to get out.

At work: You spend most of your time wanting to get out and go inside

bars.

In prison: There are wardens who are often sadistic.

At work: They are called supervisors.

In prison: You have unlimited time to read e-mail jokes.

At work: You get fired if you get caught."

Alex laughed very hard.

"It's just like at ZECT for god's sake! Hey, I have one too," Alex said. She cleared her throat.

"A father came in the bedroom to find his 13-year-old daughter smoking a cigarette. "My God! How long have you been smoking?" screams the father. "Since I lost my virginity," replies the girl. "You lost your VIRGINITY! When the hell did this happen?" shrieks the father. "I don't remember," says the girl. "I was completely drunk."

"Oh my god, that's also pretty funny," James said between laughs.

"Oh, you think?" Alex asked. "Just look at your joke!"

"Oh no, your joke is bigger," James said.

"Nah, your joke was like funny as hell," Alex said.

"You should get some rest, the heist would be beginning in a few hours," James said, standing up and turning to leave.

"I think I should," Alex said. She then fell asleep on her bunk, just before James decided to walk back in to give her a small kiss. He quickly left afterward, feeling more nervous than ever.

* * *

><p><strong>Battle Bunker <strong>

"Okay! Alright ladies! We're about to start, we all head to the abandoned tunnel at 6'o clock sharp!" Draco announced. The rider slowly awoke and began to start getting in ZECT uniforms and waiting near the doors.

"Draco, lead the way," Bruce said, transforming into Masked Rider Bat. The rest of the riders did the same.

"Oh shit," Draco said, transforming into Masked Rider Drago. He then led the riders out of the doors.

"We're going to have to touch a bit of surface, ladies," Drago snickered. The riders went out of the thick titanium doors, and walked out. The air was reeking of corpses and zombies. What was once a bustling city, was now a wicked wasteland. The meteor with the first worms that had fell all those years ago, had already taken a portion of the city, making it uninhabitable. Now, the rest of Shibuya might as well be radioactive.

"Just, uuunguh! Right in here," Drago grunted after lifting the heavy doors that led to the underground tunnel.

It was a large tunnel, about 30-ft tall, it stretched very deep into the ground. The doors consisted of 7 layers of titanium, 3 inches long each. Even a giant zombie, or ten or a hundred of them wouldn't be able to get inside the doors. Even so, no zombie would've ventured down towards the tunnels or have detected it.

The riders went through a series of turns until they reached a wall. There were many tiles on the wall with various pictures on the tiles.

"It's a dead end," a rider said.

"No, it's a door," Drago said. As there were 16 panels on a 4X4 layout, Drago pushed the panels in an X formation, and the door opened. The door here was just as thick as the tunnel entrance.

"We are at a hidden smuggler hideout, looks like it hasn't been in use for a while," Drago said. There were provisions and weapons, but most of them were dusty and the weapons were from the late 1900s.

"There's a hidden door on the right here. Once we get out, Alpha and Bravo squads rush out by clock up, draw the zombies away from the top floors. Charlie and Delta squads will rush up the stairs and get the supplies as fast as they could, smuggle them, get out back into the lift same room, and go into the tunnel and wind up back at ZECT. I hope you remember where the entrance is, because the tunnel can go several ways," Drago said. Bruce stepped up.

"Alright, stay close; don't get separated until at least the 30th floor, then we will get the supplies. Supplies under that floor are not to be touched, too risky, zombies everywhere."

Even Alex added in something. "Alright mates, we need to make this thing quick. I don't want any zombies on our trail after we escape."

A rider simply called "The Big Guy" said, "Better not destroy that tunnel, if you can. It is our only way out!"

"We ready or what!?" Drago shouted. The riders responded "READY!"

* * *

><p><strong>Alpha Squad <strong>

The Alpha riders rushed towards the lower floors of the building, aiming to prevent any zombie from climbing any further up. Any surviving human would've thought that they were attacking the zombies. But they were not. Instead, the riders would cause a distraction where the zombies would start following the riders, as when the zombies are provoked, they go after their target until it is too far or it is missing or it is destroyed. Meanwhile, the Bravo riders would drive the zombies outside the building away from the riders inside.

Drake was part of Alpha Squad, as Drago thought that riders with long ranged weaponry would be perfect to drive away the zombies. Drake led the squad, and while they ran down the stairway, Drake glimpsed at the window. Already there were several explosions going on outside.

As Drake and her squad stepped down the 16th floor, there were already signs of zombies. There were few, but if you had fought them without experience, you would've already been eaten in a few zombies bites. Drake shot a zombie in the head, and it went down.

"I'd suggest picking off the small groups first," Drake said. The rest of the riders nodded in agreement. As a dozen zombies saw their fallen "comrade", the twelve rushed towards the riders, but they were shot down almost immediately.

"Conserve your ammo!" a rider said.

"Not really necessary, most of our weapons have unlimited ammo," Drake explained.

Many long-ranged weapons made for the riders had unlimited ammo. Drake's weapon had infinite rounds and the Kunai Guns, which were held by most of the squad right now, only used energy bolts instead of bullets. There were few weapons that had limited ammo, like Tarantel's (Tarantula-based rider) web crossbow or Salamandra's (Salamander-based rider) flame blaster.

Alex's squad shot their way down 6 floors until the zombies got larger in number. The numbers went from a dozen to thirty.

"Should we clock up?" Tarantel, one of the leaders asked.

"Let's go, try going around the zombies," Drake suggested.

The riders then clocked up and started to round up the zombies, who started to follow the riders. The zombies could follow their clock-up movements, which made it perfect to divert them from the "supply" riders.

The only bad thing was; the riders could still be hit or bitten.

Two riders were already stopped in their tracks as some zombies jumped them. Still, Alpha Squad had moved on.

"Keep together!" Drake yelled.

The riders soon approached the 9th floor, which was teeming with zombies.

"I need this floor clear!" The Big Guy said. The riders proceeded to shoot the rest of the zombies, making the floor clear

The zombies followed them all the way to the 6th floor, where even more zombies were at.

"Time to take out the trash!" a rider yelled in a gruff voice. The rider then fired a large energy ball from his weapon, literally called "The Garbage Truck". The "Truck" had enough energy to disintegrate, vaporize, or incinerate a hundred targets, depending on which mode the Truck was in.

The energy ball destroyed most of the zombies, but unfortunately, the staircase was cracking from the energy. Drake cursed, and decided to contact Bat.

"Hey, Bat! The staircase on the 6th floor is too unstable, is there another way to go back to ZECT? We can't approach the lift or the tunnel," Drake said.

"I can't find another way out besides the main doors and the tunnel. Try finding another intact staircase on the other side of your floor later on, you should be able to find your way to the lift. From my map, I see the other staircase on the 6th floor able to use," Bat said.

"Good, I'll send some riders to secure the area there," Drake said.

The call was cut. "Hey you five! I need you guys to find the other staircase on this floor and secure it! It's our only other way out!"

The riders rushed over there.

"Hey Big Guy! We need to finish off the rest of them, and then we'll meet the others on top!" Drake yelled.

Big Guy gave her a simple nod, and he blasted another large group with his bazooka.

"Try to not hit the staircases!" Drake yelled again.

"I know what the hell I'm doing, girl!" Big Guy retorted. Drake stayed silent.

As she approached the 2nd floor, Drake got a good image of Bravo Squad. They were being chased by too many zombies…

* * *

><p><strong>Delta Squad<strong>

"Get those supplies!" a rider shouted.

"Keep moving!" another yelled.

"Pack it on the lift! One at a time!" a third rider instructed.

Bat ensured the riders that the lift was beyond its time after being discovered by some of the workers which had settled in the building before and that it would be able to carry about 30 tons per lift.

Bat went into his "detective mode" with his visors, and saw that the Beta Squad riders were being chased, and the Alpha Squad members defended the staircase on the 6th floor pretty well.

"How is it down there?" a rider asked.

"Going smoothly, let's get the rest of the supplies down! Only what would be needed!" Bat yelled.

The Charlie Squad riders were on a higher floor; that was where most of the weaponry and equipment were, those riders would transport them to Floor 27 with the only intact elevator. Floor 27 was where the lift would go down to Floor 9. Ironically, the elevator stopped working at the 27th floor.

While the supplies were gathered, Bruce and some other riders fixed the elevator to start working, but the cables and the elevator would start to fall once it went lower than 27.

There were several zombies that would linger on the high floors, but they were all handled with care and finished off. Most of the staircases were intact surprisingly, something that Bat had made a mistake on.

"Sir! There's a problem with some of the boxes," a rider said to Bat.

"Well, let's have a look," Bat said, amused.

As the rider led Bat to the boxes, there were timer bombs on them.

"Some rogue rider must've snuck up here before us and knew of our plans…" Bat speculated.

"Yes, that's what I did," the rider said. The rider, called Rybamech (Swordfish-based rider) slashed Bat with his twin arm blades. Bat grunted as he landed on the floor.

"Why…? Why are you doing this?" Bat stammered.

"Ha ha ha, ZECT is doomed anyway. So why try supplying them with all this shit? The world's bound to fall, and we can't even stop them all in one building!" Rybamech sneered.

"You don't know that," Bat rasped.

"Look at your Bravo Squad, they're being chased down like dogs, look at your alpha squad, they don't even know what to do! And look at ZECT; we're living underground like we're prisoners in a pit! I've decided that nature takes its course. I'd say let the zombies take over, because how much longer can humanity survive? Why hide underground when there's no hope?" Rybamech asked.

"We hide to fight another day. Stop this madness at once," Bat rasped again, this time in a darker voice.

"**TRY AND STOP ME BITCH!**" Rybamech yelled. The traitor rider let out a battle cry, and Bat roared as they charged at each other…

* * *

><p>"I'm going to help them," said Drake as she pointed to the Bravo Squad riders.<p>

"Then I'm going to, but are you sure the rest of them can secure that staircase?" Big Guy asked.

"I'm positive, Big Guy, we gotta help them," Drake pulled at Big Guy's arm and they both ran.

Meanwhile, the Bravo riders were still getting chased by their adversaries, and as Alex observed; the riders would eventually be surrounded.

"Hey Big Guy, use the Garbage Truck on that one area," Alex said, pointing to a clearing with a horde of zombies.

"I'll contact Drago, so he can tell the others to avoid that area," Big Guy said, and then he started telling Drago.

"Once the dust clears, go through that opening!" instructed Big Guy.

Big Guy then aimed the Garbage Truck on the clearing, and set the mode to "vaporize".

"Mahalo motherfucker," Big Guy muttered as he pulled the trigger. About a hundred zombies who were in the area were instantly vaporized as the energy ball hit.

"**YES!**" yelled Big Guy as he pumped a fist in the air.

"GO GO GO!" Drake yelled to the Bravo riders as they zoomed away towards Drake and the Big Guy.

"Hey, you know, after running miles after miles in a giant-ass circle, our legs tend to start falling off?" Drago asked.

"Hahah, well you got the help, now let's just finish them off and get back to base," Drake replied.

"Good, I'm pretty sure if something is going on with the other squads, they're gonna need some big help," Big Guy said.

* * *

><p>Bat was busy defending himself from Rybamech's attacks, and as their battle raged on, the zombies had heard them and clumsily, but eventually, started trying to attack the riders.<p>

"You cannot win!" Rybamech shouted as his blades clanged with Bat's arm spikes.

As Rybamech had his two blades locked with Bat's gauntlets, Bat kicked him in the stomach and roundhouse kicked him in the face. Rybamech stumbled back, but then he whirled around and swung his blades, but Bat jumped over the strike and kicked the traitor in the back of the head.

"You're outmatched, give it up," Bat growled.

"I'll never submit to you," Rybamech screeched. The rider then ran at Bat again, who had dodged his attack and got into a defensive stance.

Rybamech brought his blades up and brought them down with brute force, with Bat rolling away just in time for him to get out his grapple gun. Bat shot it at him, intending to grapple him over, but Rybamech simply swatted the grappling hook and jabbed Bat with both blades, causing him to fly back into a box.

Bat jumped back up and elbowed Rybamech, making him stumble back. Bat then punched him in the face and grabbed his head with both arms and head-butted him. As Rybamech screeched in pain, Bat did a "Scorpion-style" backflip kick and sent Rybamech flying towards another box. As Rybamech scrambled back up, Bat threw a batarang at him, bringing him back down.

"Stop this, and there will be no further death," Bat grumbled.

"NO!" Rybamech shouted as his two arm blades launched out of his gauntlets. One missed Bat narrowly, but the second had impaled itself into Bat's armor…

"AGGGHH!" Bat shouted as he felt the pain of the blades.

Rybamech then ran towards Bat, grabbed the blade out of Bat, and slashed him in the face. Bat fell down two floors, and rolled in pain.

"It's time to end this mission and let ZECT rot away into the dark," Rybamech said.

"**NO!"** Bat yelled. He felt his energy rise and soon ran at full speed towards the traitor, ignoring his stomach wound.

Bat did a bicycle kick on the traitor, and then threw a smoke pill at him, blinding and confusing him. Bat then launched out a missile from one of the underground missile turrets, and made it target Rybamech. Bat got out his shock gloves, and started to electrocute the rider. Bat gave the traitor a knee to the jaw, and then threw a mini-bomb at him. As the missile approached, Bat back-flipped while the missile hit Rybamech, turning him back into his human form.

"You shouldn't have turned your back on us," Bat said, slightly groaning from Rybamech's stab.

As Bat walked over to Rybamech, he punched him in the face.

"GIVE ME THE DETONATOR!" Bat growled.

"Oh heh-heh, you mean this detonator?" Rybamech asked, and then he pressed the button. The bombs started to count down.

"YOU SCUMBAG! YOU BITCH! YOU'VE DOOMED US!" Bat growled, and then he knocked a grinning Rybamech unconscious. Bat ran over to the bombs, there were exactly 7 minutes left.

"Everyone out! There are some bombs on a few boxes! Everyone evacuate!" Bat yelled. The riders finished battling the zombies and they started to carry the boxes into the lift. Fortunately, most of the supplies were inside the tunnel.

"What's going on?" Drake asked as she got up the stairs.

"Rybamech planted bombs on some of the boxes, I ordered an evac," Bat rasped angrily.

"What kind of bombs?" Drago asked.

"I don't know, it's not ZECT tech. When all of these explode it has enough strength to take down the entire building," Bat said.

Drake then felt a chill in her spine. _"I hope James makes it out with the rest of them."_

"Then what the hell are you waiting for?" the Big Guy asked.

The four riders then ran to the lift. They went down, and snapped the chains so nobody else could go to the lift. But as they were about to approach the metal doors, they heard a large noise, and the whole building shook.

"What the hell was that…?" Drake stammered.

"A giant," the Big Guy grumbled, getting his bazooka ready.

"It's larger than most!" Drago yelled.

"Jump!" Bat yelled. They all jumped as the giant zombie swatted his hand across the building. What was left of the area was nothing but debris and a hole leading down to several floors.

"Oh shit," Drago growled. The rider then pressed 4 on his staff, and threw it right at the giant's neck, the giant sniffed from the pain and Drago landed on the giant. Drago then took the staff back up, pressed 1 and jabbed downward, but the giant felt nothing and swatted Drago into the metal doors, knocking him unconscious as well as making a huge Drago-shaped figure on the doors.

"So much for indestructible walls," Drake said.

Drake then charged up and fired a "_Rider Shooting"_at the giant zombie, but it barely affected the zombie as it brought its fists up and brought them back down. The three riders rolled away just before the area where they were standing at was complete gone.

The Big Guy then fired at the giant with the Garbage Truck, but even that only made the giant stumble. Big Guy fired it three more times, and the giant fell. Bat then tossed several exploding batarangs at the giant, bringing it down once more.

"A missile should buy us a lot of time," Drake said.

"That would risk destroying the building along with us," Bat countered.

"How much time on the bombs?" Big Guy asked.

"Less than 2 minutes, but I have a plan," Bat said.

Bat then tapped the side of his belt. His Zecter then announced "_CLOCK UP!"_ and in less than a few seconds, Rybamech's bombs were on the 9th floor.

"But wouldn't that mean…?" Drake asked.

"Correct, the blast will destroy the zombie and the underground tunnel, we can escape now!" Bat yelled.

"LOOK OUT!" Big Guy yelled. The zombie then swatted the three riders into the wall, a stray bomb box went haywire and exploded right at their feet, and Drake flew high up in the air and landed with a thud. Big Guy and Bat flew towards the doors.

"Shit…" Drake grumbled as she got up.

The zombie then saw the rest of the bombs, and saw interest in them.

"Oh mother of god no! He's going to detonate those bombs!" Big Guy yelled.

"INTO THE DOOR!" Bat yelled. The zombie's hand was nearer towards the bombs each second, and the bombs only had a few seconds left…

Bat grabbed the unconscious Drago and started running towards the doors.

"CLOSE THEM!" Bat yelled to Drake. Drake nodded and shut them.

"How much time!?" Drake asked.

"15 seconds!" Bat yelled. The three riders then activated Clock Up and started to run. They soon heard the bomb go off, and heard a loud moan as the giant lost its life. The flames of the bomb were so intense, it burned through the tunnel doors and started to fill the tunnel in flames. The scorch started to reach the riders.

"I have a plan!" Drake yelled as she pulled the lever on her Drake Zecter.

_"RIDER SHOOTING!" _the Zecter yelled.

"My energy balls should buy us some time, but I need Drago's staff!" Drake yelled.

Bat quickly gave her the staff, and Drake pressed 2. She then pulled the trigger on the Drake Zecter and pressed the button on the Dragon Staff. The Dragon Staff's laser beam and Drake's Energy Ball collided with each other and created a giant blue ray that started to counter the deadly flames.

"Come on!" Bat yelled.

"No! If I stop now we're dead anyway!" Drake yelled. But suddenly, she was shoved aside as her energy beam stopped. Drake thought that the riders were doomed for good, but something else held the flames at bay. It was the Garbage Truck using it's superlaser form.

"Big Guy!" Drake yelled.

"Go! You need to survive!" Big Guy yelled.

"I'm not leaving!" Drake replied, but Bat and Drago were already heading down the remainder of the tunnel.

"You need to find Kabuto! He's the key to solving everything!" Big Guy yelled.

"Kabuto!?" Drake asked.

"You'll find out! Right now, you have to go!" Big Guy yelled.

Drake then found herself in a trap. She knew Big Guy couldn't handle the flames much longer, and Kabuto would trust no one but her right now…

"Fine, but what do I do!?" Drake asked.

"Deliver this to him, he'll know what to do," Big Guy said, handing a letter to Drake.

"Okay," Drake said in tears.

"Go…" Big Guy said in a broken voice.

Drake then used Clock Up and raced out of the scene. She then heard an explosion as she finally reached the exit. She rolled out, breathing hard on her knees as she heard the Big Guy perish in the flames.

Drago soon awoke, and Bat helped him on his feet. Drago limped towards Drake, and looked at the tunnel.

Suddenly, the three riders heard something make a large clang! And out of the flames came the Big Guy's Garbage Truck. As far as the riders could tell, the weapon was very much intact.

"This is what's left of our Hulk…" Drago said sadly.

"Which is why we must honor him for his bravery," Bat rasped.

"And carry on his task," Drake said. "He told me to find Kabuto, saying that he was the key to stopping everything."

"Open the letter, and we'll see," Bat suggested.

"I don't think we should. If it was meant for my mentor, then it is something only he should see…" Drake replied.

"Good point. It has been a rough day, the other riders are waiting for us," Drago said.

As Bat helped Drago walk down the path towards the riders, Drake glanced at the charred tunnel doors, and The Big Guy's Garbage Truck. She walked up to the weapon, and hoisted it on her back and followed the other two riders.

* * *

><p><strong>Days Later… Underground Bunkers<strong>

The three riders told Riku Kagami of their story. Most of the riders made it back with no injuries, although several were infected and rumored to have perished in the explosion of the supply tower. They also told of the Big Guy's death.

"This is indeed a sad loss, Braddock Steel has served us for many years," Riku Kagami said.

"He was a good friend…" Haku said.

"And he saved us," Alex added.

"Nevertheless, we will continue our race for survival, and we will eventually carry out the task Braddock has assigned us," Riku pressed.

"Then let us hold a moment of silence for our fallen comrade," Draco said.

"I agree," James said, he had appeared in the room minutes after Alex. James smiled at Alex, Alex held his hand tight.

Just a second into their moment of silence, a ZECTrooper came rushing through the room.

"COMMANDER COMMANDER! IT'S THE VORPAL! THE VORPAL HAS RETURNED!" the trooper yelled in excitement.

"What!?" Riku asked in shock.

The four riders, the trooper, and Riku Kagami ran outside, sure enough, the stunning image of the Vorpal was seen in the sky.

Years ago, Masked Rider Gatack and a few riders went on Mars for a mission to find alien life. Now that they returned, Riku Kagami thought that his son would've found something, and that the Vorpal's crew would be equally surprised of what had happened in the time that had passed.

Alex had never felt happier, she hugged James as he smiled at the sky.

"It's here, help is here," James said.

"Now all we have to do is find Kabuto," Alex said.

But first, we have to send out some riders to pick them up," Haku said, beckoning Draco.

While Alex and James held each other, and Haku and Draco headed into the other bunkers to share the news and gather a search party. Riku Kagami simply looked up at the sky.

"Help is here…"


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Hey guys I'm back, I'll be focused on finishing this story so don't expect any new Batman chapters this month. Only four chapters left! **

**Plus, there's a little surprise at the end for all of you. **

**R&R!**

* * *

><p><strong>Prologue:<strong>

Three zombie riders circled the Japanese Rhinoceros-Beetle rider. The rider was unfazed.

The zombies growled in satisfaction through the broken helmets. They "licked" their dead lips in hoping for defeating and infecting their opponent. The zombies charged, but the rider dodged all their attacks. The rider kept dodging their hits and blasted the riders with his Kunai Gun.

The zombies then aimed at his head with their teeth, they all had missed. The rider then pulled a zombie's head off, and sliced off another with his Kunai Gun in Axe Mode. The last zombie rushed at him, but the rider stunned the zombie by grabbing its neck, and blasted the zombie at the head. The zombie's head blew up into pieces.

The rider walked on like nothing had happened.

"That's three less riders to deal with," the rider said. Just then, he heard something in the sky. It was a spaceship.

Two more years had passed, and the world was infected. A grand number of cities thrived through quarantine, but over time some had fallen to the zombies. The rider was everywhere and about, hunting down zombies. He had trained two riders his battle strategies and tactics, and techniques in combat. He was uncertain what happened to the both of them. All he knew was that sooner or later, everyone would die.

The rider recognized the spaceship. It was the Vorpal, where those 4 or 5 years ago, ZECT launched a mission to explore life in outer space. The rider wondered what the crew had discovered.

The rider knew his best friend; Arata Kagami was on that ship. He was the mission's leader, and almost the most powerful of riders. The ship wasn't heading for Hong Kong; it was heading towards Shibuya…

* * *

><p><strong>Aboard the Vorpal<strong>

The four years on Mars had been weary. Kagami and his squadron of riders had helped the Ni-Lok Tus, a native martian species, drive off a dictator martian species called the Kin-Lok Sa. A series of other martian nations were also allied with the Kin-Lok Sa, but the riders had managed to recruit the rest of the free martian nations against the Kin-Lok Sa. None of the riders had died, but many martians had died in the war.

"It's just like our own world wars," a rider had said.

Kagami walked to the pilots, who had set the ship to Auto-Pilot for a drink.

"That is toast to a success on the Red Planet!" the pilot said to his friend, clinking their drinks.

"I hope my friend from the Ni-Lok Tus, Tsuraruu, survived his chest injury, after all, martians are much different from us," the co-pilot said.

"You all seem to be having a good time," said Jim Clane, one of Kagami's most trusted riders and a childhood friend.

"But we all need to focus on getting back to Earth and report to my father about the martians," Kagami said.

"Yeah, and who would've thought that there were really martians?" another rider asked. The riders laughed at the truth.

"We're not the only intelligent life out there huh," Clane remarked.

"Well not everyone on Earth is exactly intelligent," the pilot said to his friend, the co-pilot, who had dropped out of high school.

"Shut up!" the co-pilot said.

"Hey guys! I think you should really see this…" a rider in the back of the ship said.

"We're coming Xavier," Kagami said. The riders then went to Xavier, who was looking at the window.

"We've entered the lower atmosphere, and I'm shocked," Xavier said shakily.

A rider peered down at one of the small windows of the ship.

"I think I see our base!"

"But it's in ruins…" another rider said.

"Hey Kagami, look at this! It's a bunch of those zombie things," the pilot said.

Kagami couldn't believe what he was seeing. Encountering the ZECT base was frightening enough, but seeing a bunch of zombies around it made the situation worse. If Kagami and the Vorpal Crew stayed, could they have avoided such a fate?

"Are we the last ones?" Clane considered.

"The remnants must be in the underground bunkers, and I'm pretty sure some cities are quarantined. Last time we were here, many cities were already placing themselves under heavy guard," Kagami said.

"Should we check the bunkers then?" Clane asked.

"Might as well, we better go stealthily, too many zombies would come after us," Kagami said.

The two pilots went back into their seats.

"Alright, let's go," the pilot said.

As the ship went to the destination of the bunkers, Kagami wondered how the zombies were able to overwhelm ZECT. When Kagami first saw the zombies, they were nothing but pale humans with white eyes and unusual strength, now some of them had more grotesque features, like protruding spikes or natural projectile weaponry. Kagami even saw a giant zombie throwing one of its own up into the air.

"We're approaching the bunkers, but there are zombies near the entrance," the pilot said.

"Kill them, kill all of them," Clane said, reading Kagami's mind.

The Vorpal activated her laser cannons, while the riders went into battle stations.

"Laser cannons! Fire!" the co-pilot yelled.

A stream of laser bolts collided with the zombies. Some incinerated instantly, others were broken to pieces but still crawling or hopping towards the direction of the ship.  
>The Vorpal then activated her Maser Cannon, which aimed itself at a giant zombie.<p>

"Phaser! Fire!" Clane ordered.

The Maser Cannon hit the giant square in the chest, but it got a rock out of its body and hurled the object towards the ship.

"Dodge it! Dodge it!" the co-pilot yelled. The pilot flew away from the incoming projectile, but it slightly grazed the top of the ship.

"Kill that son of a bitch!" Clane growled. The Maser Cannon fired again, and the giant zombie went down, squashing a number of weaker zombies with its dead corpse.

"Take that, you ugly piece of shit!" the pilot yelled.

"Let's land the ship," Kagami suggested.

The pilot found a clearing where the zombies were killed, the ship landed, and Kagami stepped out first.

"I'm sure if they were in the bunkers, they would've sent out a search party," a rider said with an uncertain look.

"That's only if ZECT is in there," another rider retorted.

"Hey guys, more zombies," Clane pointed.

A horde of zombies (luckily not the giants) rushed towards the riders. In turn, the riders got out their belts and Zecters started to crawl or fly towards their users.

The Spider Zecter jumped up to Clane's hands, and Clane attached it onto his Rider Belt.

"Henshin!" Clane yelled.

_"HENSHIN!" _the Zecter announced as armor developed around Clane, in the form of a spider. Clane became Masked Rider Spindus.

The Gatack Zecter flew to Kagami after killing two zombies by itself.

"Henshin!" Kagami yelled as he attached the Zecter onto the belt.

"_HENSHIN!_" the Zecter announced as armor developed around Kagami, who became Masked Rider Gatack.

"Let's go!" Gatack yelled.

The riders charged at the zombies, but soon they were overwhelmed. The lack of training for zombies and prolonged battle with martians made the riders underpowered with unconventional and useless tactics and moves against the zombies.

"Just go for their heads!" Gatack suggested.

The riders went with that idea, and they soon retaliated, but soon a rider was bitten…

"AHHHH!" the rider yelled as he was repeatedly hit by the zombies.

Another rider was heard screaming as a bunch of zombies jumped on top of him and began to chew off the rider armor, where the screams soon ended.

_"Sick…"_ Gatack thought.

"Where the fuck is ZECT when we need them!?" Spindus growled, shooting electrical webs at the zombies, ensnaring them and frying their already dead bodies.

The two riders used Cast Off, and then clocked up. The other riders did the same, but unknown to them, the zombies could track Clock Up movements, and the riders were soon brought down again.

"Gatack! Help!" Spindus grunted as a zombie bit his armor, and to Gatack's horror, bit his skin…

"GAAHHHH!" Spindus yelled in anger, he pulled the zombie's head off and kicked the head to another zombie, who caught it with undead surprise.

"Spindus!" Gatack yelled, rushing to his side. A zombie raised both skinny hands as it was about to kill them both, Gatack was about to block the hit….

Just then, the zombie was hit with a bat-like boomerang, and the zombie exploded.

"Bat!" Gatack sighed with relief.

"We saw your ship! We knew you would need help!" Bat said.

Drago slashed a zombie with his staff, and impaled a zombie's head with the other end of it.

"Drago!" Gatack yelled.

"Good to see you too," Drago grunted, who then used "2" and sliced off a few zombie heads. Behind him came a few more riders.

"Help the wounded!" Gatack ordered the riders. They responded with a nod and picked up two wounded riders.

"Kagami," Spindus said weakly.

"Yes?" Gatack asked.

"Kill me, spare me the pain of being one of them," Spindus babbled.

"I can't just," Gatack began.

"**KILL ME GODDAMN IT! KILL ME!**" Spindus pleaded.

Gatack sniffed, as he felt a tear streak down his cheek.

"If that's what you wish, old friend," Gatack stammered.

Gatack slowly pressed the full throttle button thrice on the Gatack Zecter.

_"1,"_ the Zecter announced.

"Just remember this in your heart," Spindus began.

_"2,_" the Zecter continued.

"That I…" Spindus continued.

_"3,"_ the Zecter continued.

"Will always be your friend," Spindus finished.

Gatack flipped the Zecter's horns to its original position, creating an energy surge that went to the horns on his head and then to his foot.

"Rider…Kick…." Gatack said between tears. He was about to lose his childhood friend, one of his closest friends.

Before he put the horns back, Gatack decided to look back at the past. Jim Clane was a student from America, and he got picked on for his race. Kagami became friends with him and defended him from the bullies, which made him unpopular with the other kids. Their friendship grew over the years, until they parted during college. They later met back at ZECT after the Worm Crisis.

"_RIDER KICK!_" the Zecter announced.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Gatack cried as he did a flying roundhouse kick on his friend. Spindus exploded, escaping his fate as a zombie…

As the explosion cleared, Gatack went to where he was previously standing, and knelt on the floor. Gatack pulled his Zecter out, and Kagami started to tear up.

He heard Haku and Drago come over, and they helped him up.

"During this fight, many deaths are inevitable, Spindus's was an unfortunate one," Haku said sadly.

"Nevertheless, we must continue on and honor our fallen comrades' wishes," Drago said with a hard but saddened voice.

"I agree, this isn't the first time something like this happened. I almost gotten used to it, but it is still heartbreaking…" Kagami said as he shook away the tears.

"You're strong, I grant you that. But now we have to go to your father," Haku said.

"Come on Kagami, we'll tell you the details once we get to the bunkers," Drago added.

All Kagami could do was nod in deep silence.

* * *

><p><strong>ZECT Underground Bunker<strong>

"So there is life on Mars…and it seems they would be in peace with us," Riku Kagami said after his son debriefed.

"Not the Kin-Lok Sa or their allies, but they don't have the technology to come to Earth, we should be safe from them," Kagami said.

"I know how you feel about all this. It seems so sudden doesn't it son?" Riku asked.

"Yeah, so much has happened since our journey to Mars…" Kagami said.

"Anyway, we have to find Kabuto," Riku continued.

"Tendou? Why?" Kagami asked.

"Ask Alex, she-"

"Who's Alex?" Kagami asked in confusion.

"The new Drake. Kabuto trained her, she knows he is the key to solving everything, how she knows or how he is the key, no one knows," Riku said.

"That's not good enough, but we might need him anyway…" Kagami replied.

"We're going to have to find Sasword as well," Riku continued.

"Tsurugi-kun isn't here?" Kagami asked.

"He went on a journey of his own, he can hold himself well," Riku pointed out.

"Did he tell you where he was headed?" Kagami asked.

"South Africa. Surprisingly, the whole country is intact," Riku said with an amused look.

"How many riders are left?" Kagami pressed.

"During the invasion, half of our riders perished. We have about 40 or so here, and the remainder of teams Griffin, Scorpion, and Unicorn are around cities worldwide, Bat and Dragon teams remained to defend us. We've recently raided a supply building after it was overrun with zombies and rogue riders, but we are pretty much good here. We'll survive for another few months before the supplies run out," Riku explained.

"Good, we're gonna have to find Kabuto and Sasword then," Kagami said, getting ready to leave.

"Stay here for a few days, I haven't seen my son in ages," Riku said.

"Of course, dad," Kagami replied, patting him on the shoulder.

"Finding Kabuto is first priority, Sasword will come eventually," Riku said lastly.

"Got it dad," Kagami said, then left the bunker.

As Kagami left the room, he turned around and saw a young woman in a ZECT uniform.

"I'm guessing you're Alex," Kagami said quickly.

"Correct," Alex replied.

"How'd Kabuto get the Drake Zecter to you," Kagami asked.

"After Kazama commit suicide, he left a note and the Drake Grip on the ground. Tendou picked it up and gave it to me, and before the main attack began, he trained me to be a better rider," Alex said, walking around.

"Why'd Tendou pick you?" Kagami asked.

"Because he saw a vicious lady-warrior that can kick ass. I know you don't like me being Drake, Kagami," Alex said.

"I never said…"

"Don't bother, it's alright, a lot of people say I can't live up to Drake's expectations," Alex admitted.

"If you think you're as good as you think you are, let us spar," Kagami suggested.

Alex got into a fighting stance, and Kagami just bent his knees.

"Hi-Yah!" Alex yelled as she flew towards Kagami, but the seasoned warrior intercepted her kick with a chop to her knee. Kagami did a palm strike at her back, sending her a few feet back. Alex landed on the ground with ease.

Kagami rushed forward and aimed a punch at Alex. Alex raised her arms to defend herself, but Kagami did a sweep and tripped her.

Alex grunted, but hopped back up. Kagami threw several punches at her, but she blocked them. Alex jumped and kicked Kagami in the face, but all she managed to do was make him step back.

"Interesting," Kagami said.

The two rushed back at each other. Alex aimed a round-house kick but Kagami ducked and grabbed her leg. Kagami threw her onto the ground.

"Looks like you're better than I thought," Kagami said.

"Oh, why so negative?" Alex asked, getting back up.

The two continued exchanging kicks and punches, and soon their sparring session attracted a small crowd of ZECT personnel.

"Is Alex actually holding her own against Kagami?"

"Damn this is intense."

The two kicked each other and they both stumbled back. The two ran towards each other again. Alex spun around and grabbed her gun, but Kagami threw a smoke bomb on the ground and after the smoke cleared, Gatack had one of his swords pointed at her throat.

"Too slow hotshot," Gatack said.

"Damn it," Alex grumbled, putting her gun away.

Kagami took his Zecter off his belt, and smirked.

"Kabuto trained you well," Kagami said.

"He did," Alex beamed.

"I see already that you have good potential, I look forward to fighting alongside you in the battlefield," Kagami said, he then walked away without a word.

The rest of the crowd soon disappeared as well, leaving Alex alone.

"That was a hell of a fight," James said, coming from behind.

"You watched?" Alex asked.

"You could say that," James said.

"Well then," Alex said. "I don't think you wanna spar with me."

"I could, but nah," James decided.

"Good enough, let's go up to the surface," Alex said with a mischievous voice.

"But we had clear orders to not go up there," James objected.

"Who the hell cares?" Alex said, grabbing James's arm.

"I don't wanna get busted!" James cried. A couple riders snickered at the two.

* * *

><p><strong>Days Later<strong>

"Kagami, it's time to find him," Riku said.

"Yes, but are you sure that Tendou's the one? What if he's already dead?" Kagami asked.

"But he's not," Riku replied. "He is in Moscow, according to some inside sources.

"Then I'm heading out," Kagami replied, getting out of his seat.

"But wait," Riku said.

"What?" Kagami asked.

"Leave a couple of riders here, and stay safe my son," Riku said.

"Of course, dad," Kagami said. He then left the room.

As he went out of the bunker, Alex Walker, Haku Kamijo, and Draco Stark were outside.

"So?" Draco asked.

"We head out today, in 20 minutes," Kagami decided.

"Good, let's find Tendou," Haku said.

"My father said to leave a couple of riders here, grab whoever you want, and meet me here in 20 minutes," Kagami said. The three riders nodded and walked away.

20 minutes later, the three riders came back with most of the riders, 27 by Kagami's calculations.

"Alright, everyone ready?" Kagami asked.

The riders nodded and shouted "Ready".

"Then let's go," Kagami said.

"I'm actually surprised there are still trees out here," a rider said as they crossed a concrete path. The riders were in what used to be a playground.

"Well the zombies don't have interest in them," another rider replied.

The riders had been trekking through for four hours, trying to find a Clock Up port somewhere near Shibuya.

"I've always wondered what would happen if the worm came back," a rider said.

"Shut up! We don't want that shit happening again," Alex countered.

"Calm down, we need to find the nearest Clock Up port," Kagami ordered.

"And I think my computers just scanned a station, just a mile away," Haku said.

"Where is it?" Kagami asked.

"Under where Tokyo Tower used to be," Haku said, pointing to the remains of the tower.

As the riders approached near there, zombies started appearing from doors of damaged buildings.

"What the hell…it's like they know we're here!" Kagami shouted.

"Form ranks! Transform!" Haku ordered the riders. One by one, each rider transformed, and got their weapons out.

"Henshin!" shouted Kagami, Haku, Draco, and Alex, they transformed into Gatack, Bat, Drago, and Drake respectively.

"Let's bust these guys!" Drake yelled.

The riders charged at the oncoming zombies and soon punches and kicks collided with undead skulls.

"For my fallen comrades!" Gatack yelled as he sliced the head off a zombie. He ducked between two zombies and stabbed the zombies' chest upward into their heads.

"You've seemed to learn much from that simulator," Drago shouted, coming over to Gatack's aid.

"Yeah, seems so much easier now," Gatack grunted as he pried a zombie off his shoulder.

"Watch out!" Drago suddenly yelled. Gatack looked up and saw a giant fist coming towards his direction.

Drago ducked, but Gatack jumped onto the giant zombie's fist and ran up to its head. After disappearing behind it, the gigantic creature fell to the ground with a giant thud.

"How's that?" Gatack asked.

"Very cool," Drago nodded as he zapped another zombie with his staff.

While they fought, Drake and Bat were back-to-back, blasting and throwing projectiles at the zombies while they were at it.

"Seen anything like this before the whole zombie thing?" Bat asked Drake.

"During Special Forces, during the Gulf War," Drake said.

"You were in the Gulf War?" Bat asked curiously.

"Some assignment," Drake replied as she blasted a jumping zombie.

"There's a lot of them, and they keep hopping out of those buildings," Bat said, pointing to the line of buildings a few yards out.

"How the fuck did zombies learn to form ranks?" Drake asked.

"Don't know! But I suggest blowing up those buildings fast!" Bat said.

Gatack and Drago came over to them, panting.

"What about those buildings?" Drago asked.

"I got just the thing," Drake said as she pulled out a small box that quickly transformed itself into a bazooka.

"What the hell is that thing?" Gatack asked.

"It's the Garbage Truck," Bat simply said, giving Gatack a thumbs-up.

"Garbage Truck!?" Gatack asked.

Drake fired it at one building, the building vaporized when the energy ball impacted.

"That's one hell of a weapon," Gatack said breathlessly.

Drake switched the firing mode to "incinerate", and aimed it at a group of zombies coming towards a few riders.

"Incoming!" Bat yelled to them, they ran out of the way as a red projectile hit several riders, leaving nothing but dust.

"What now?" Drago asked.

"We blast the rest of the damn buildings!" Alex shouted as she set the Garbage Truck to "Disintegrate". She aimed it at two buildings and fired, zombie screams and screeches were heard as green slime disintegrated the building.

"Riders! Rally the rest of the zombies!" Gatack shouted.

"What's in your mind?" Drago asked.

"First, give me that weapon," Gatack said, beckoning Drake. She gave it to him as he set it to the fourth mode, "Energy". But then she realized that the cannon had a security system. If someone unrecognizable used the cannon, they'd be electrocuted with 50,000 volts of electricity.

"Wait! The cannon hasn't-"

"Recognize. Masked Rider Gatack," announced the cannon as it fired a big, white energy ball which destroyed the rallied zombies.

"Well, that was fun," Gatack said, giving the bazooka to Drake.

"How'd you…" Drake asked but couldn't say anymore.

"Maybe when this was built they put me on the recognizing list first," Gatack suggested.

"But then you didn't know what it-"

"I oversaw to the construction of the weapon, but didn't get a chance to see the final product," Gatack said.

"Well then, let's get a move on. We have to find that Clock Up port," Bat said, beckoning the two riders, they shrugged and followed him.

"Nothing on the surface," a rider reported.

"It must be underground, but my computers can't seem to scan where the port is…" Bat said.

"Then we'll just have to look, if it's under the damn tower it should be easy to find," Drago said, walking on.

"I suggest we split up," Gatack said.

"Going underground and splitting up is not exactly the best idea," Drake replied.

"I agree," a rider called out.

"Then we'll stay together," Bat said, walking away.

The riders blasted their way into an underground entrance, and walked under for minutes, finding no port.

"We have to split up, the area's too large to explore in one group," Gatack pressed.

"Fine then, split up into two groups. Bat, Drake, and Gatack will follow me," Drago growled. The riders soon split up, leaving the four riders walking on their own.

"That's strange, my computers just shut down on me," Bat grumbled.

"You have us to thank," a voice boomed.

"Who's there? Show yourself?" Gatack yelled. A throwing knife nearly impaled his face had Gatack not dodged it.

"Just who the hell are you," Drago growled.

The voice along with three other figures appeared, they were dressed in suits with a symbol closely resembling a snake was on the back of the suits.

"You've been trespassing in Cobra Territory," a female "Cobra" said.

"Since when was Tokyo Tower your territory?" Gatack challenged.

"After the zombies took over, we Cobras decided to defect and make our own group, the Cobras. And you ZECT dogs are trespassing," another Cobra said.

"We're finding a Clock-Up port, if you could show it to us we'll be on our way," Drago said.

"It's OUR Clock-up port, no one goes in there," a third Cobra retorted.

"Then I guess we're just gonna have to get in there ourselves," Drago growled.

"Wait! This doesn't have to get any messier, we just need to get our riders to Moscow using the port, and we won't bother you again," Bat said persuasively.

"You can either leave or be destroyed," a big guy, the one with the big voice said. Two of the riders put on rider braces, the other two pulled out belts.

"Guess we have no other choice," Drago growled, Drake nodded.

Four snake-like Zecters suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and jumped into the four rogue riders' hands.

"Henshin!" the riders called.

The riders with the braces tapped a button, and two Zecters wrapped their brace arm. The riders with the belts tapped a button, and the other two Zecters wrapped themselves around the riders' waists.

_"HENSHIN!_" the Zecters announced in an odd and dark voice. The rider armor started to slowly envelop on the riders, soon their armors flashed, signaling that the process was complete.

_"Change! Viper!" _

_ "Change! Rattlesnake!"_

_ "Change! Anaconda!" _

_ "Change! King Cobra!" _

The four Cobra riders got into battle stances, Drago and the rest of the riders did the same.

"I got King Cobra!" Bat suddenly yelled as he charged towards the Cobra boss. The other three riders picked their slithering targets.

Bat threw a batarang at King Cobra, which he ducked under. King Cobra got out two swords and thrust both of them at Bat's chest. Bat fell to the floor, but immediately hopped up and kicked King Cobra in the leg, making him kneel. Bat then stepped on King Cobra's head and used both his feet and kicked him in the back.

Drake and Viper fired at each other with their projectiles, gun versus dart-gun. Their projectiles continuously intercepted with each other; a bullet would stop the impact of the small sharp dart, or the dart would pierce through the bullet but lose speed and trajectory in the process. The two females growled and charged towards each other. Drake ducked from Viper's high kick and punched her stomach. Viper growled, and grabbed Drake on the arms and lifted her up into the air and threw her into the wall. Drake impacted, creating a massive crack on the wall. As Drake scrambled onto her feet, Viper shot her with her dart-gun, causing Drake to stumble again and fall. As Viper walked towards her with fists clenched, Drake pulled out her Drake Grip and fired at Viper, who fell to the floor.

Drago and Anaconda wrestled, each trying to overpower the other with pure strength.

"I could crush you if I wanted, but this is getting interesting," Anaconda said in a snaky voice.

"Oh yeah, think again!" Drago yelled. He kneed Anaconda's arm, making him yell out in pain. Drago got his staff from his back and pressed 4, throwing the weapon at Anaconda, sending him flying a few feet back. Drago reached his hand out, and his staff came right back to his hands.

"So you want to play that way? Alright then!" Anaconda shouted.

"I hate your voice," Drago growled in reply. Anaconda screeched as he got out an electric whip, Drago found himself on the defensive as he tried to counter Anaconda's whips. Drago made the wrong move and Anaconda then gave a couple of electric lashes to Drago, as Drago was stunned, Anaconda did a drop kick on him. Drago then pressed "3" on his staff and released some Mizer Bombs to distract Anaconda, but the plan failed as the little critters couldn't get close because of Anaconda's offensive fighting style. But it distracted Anaconda enough for Drago to press "2" and shoot a laser beam at Anaconda's head, making him fly back into a pipe.

On the other side of the room, Gatack and Rattlesnake fought in hand-to-hand combat, each randomly switching from offense to defense. Gatack soon found trouble trying to block Viper's scimitar slashes.

"Poor Gatack, you've been in Mars for so long you probably forgot how to fight a rider like me," Rattlesnake said as he kicked Gatack to the ground.

"I've forgotten nothing!" Gatack yelled as he grabbed his Double Caliburs from the floor.

The two kept exchanging slashes but Rattlesnake was much faster than Gatack. Rattlesnake elbowed Gatack's chest, and swiped Gatack's legs with his scimitars.

"Before you and your friends die, you should know, that we were the ones that managed to control the zombies against you," Rattlesnake sneered.

"That was you?" Gatack stammered. "But how?"

"Mind-control devices, the zombies' brains are still active, so we could control them and make them do what we want," Rattlesnake sneered as he stepped on Gatack's chest.

"You…scumbag!" Gatack yelled as he brought all his strength on one move, and used both of his blades and slashed Rattlesnake on the left leg.

"ARGH!" Rattlesnake yelled as immediately fell to his knees and clutched his left leg.

"People like you shouldn't be surviving," Gatack growled as he put his Double Caliburs in a scissor-like configuration.

"No! No! Please!" Rattlesnake shouted.

"Too late," Gatack growled.

_"RIDER CUTTING!" _the Gatack Zecter announced.

"Hah!" Gatack shouted as he plunged both blades into Rattlesnake's chest, as the Cobra rider looked down on his chest, his rider armor fell off him, and his Rider Brace started sparking. Before Rattlesnake hit the ground, he was already dead.

Meanwhile, Drake was being tossed around by Viper as the Cobra rider proved to be faster in Clock-Up than Drake. Viper also managed to disable Drake's Clock-Up for a short period of time. As Viper circled Drake, Drake folded the Drake Zecter's wings into its scope position. Drake pulled the throttle, and the Drake Zecter began to charge up energy. Drake closed her eyes and put the Drake Grip towards her head, then opened them and fired.

_"RIDER SHOOTING!"_ the Drake Zecter announced. The energy ball split into three. One ball hit Viper, stopping her Clock-Up. The other two hit her square in the chest, making her fly into the wall.

"Time to finish you off," Drake growled. "I had enough of you."

Viper simply growled.

Drake grabbed a gauntlet called the Wave-Motion Arm Shot. She attached it to her right arm, and pressed the button on it. Energy formed around the Arm Shot as Viper struggled to get up.

Drake pressed the button again, and the charge was complete; the energy formed itself into a giant yellow ball. Drake then punched the ball at Viper, who was instantly destroyed before she could mutter out another word.

"Checkmate," Drake growled.

Drago on the other hand had Anaconda stunned after pressing "1" and hitting him on the head very hard.

"Time to finish what you started," Drago said in a dark voice. He pressed all four buttons.

_"1, 2, 3, 4!"_ the Dragon Zecter announced.

"Rider Slash!" Drago shouted.

"_RIDER SLASH!"_ announced the Dragon Zecter. Drago then brought his powered-up staff up and brought it down on Anaconda's head. He exploded soon after.

Meanwhile, Bat threw a batarang at King Cobra, which exploded at his face. The explosion sent him twirling in the air, but just then, another rider swooped in…

"_RIDER STING!"_ the TheBee Zecter announced.

"Ha!" TheBee yelled as he punched King Cobra near the heart. The enemy rider went down, but was still alive.

"Bruce," TheBee said.

"James," Bat replied.

Drake ran up to TheBee and hugged him, Drago and Gatack ran towards the fallen enemy. Behind James were the rest of their riders.

"You were hit in the heart, you'd be dead in minutes," Bat grumbled.

"But first, tell us where that Clock-Up port is," Drago demanded.

"I ain't tellin' you jack…" King Cobra gasped in broken words.

"Tell us!" Gatack yelled.

"Before you die you can at least do something honorable," Drake reasoned.

"Two rooms left from here, one room to the right afterward, you'll see it…" King Cobra groaned.

"Thanks for the information, but why were you controlling the zombies?" Gatack demanded.

"The Cobras were hired to do it," King Cobra gasped. "Not on my orders."

"Who hired you?" Bat asked.

"You don't need to know, you're gonna die if you try to cross them," King Cobra said.

"Where are they!?" Bat yelled.

"I…d-don't know…" King Cobra said.

Bat got up, so did the rest of the riders as they were signaled by Drago to find the Clock-Up port.

"Thank you, for your cooperation," Bat said, then he stabbed an exploding batarang into King Cobra's stomach. Bat walked away with Drago, Drake, TheBee, and Gatack following.

"No! What did you do to me!? What did you!-

He never got the chance to finish, as the batarang exploded.

"Found it sir!" a rider said.

"Good," Bat grumbled.

"Fully operational!" another rider said.

"I've set the coordinates already, outside Moscow City Walls," a third rider said.

"Then let's go," Drago said. "Everyone line up!"

The riders lined up, and soon, 32 hands pressed on their clock-up pads.

_"CLOCK UP!_"

The riders all rushed into the portal, and then they were gone…

* * *

><p><strong>Epilogue<strong>

"Ah! Damn it! If only we went back to the train in time!" a red monster said.

"Oh, but look at the beautiful scenary…" a blue monster said.

"This is Japan? Looks more like a desert," a yellow monster said.

"Ooh! Goodie! Look I found a doll!" a purple monster called, digging a stuffed animal out of the sand. It closely resembled that of "Woodie the Cowboy"

"Let's pull the string!" the purple monster said.

"No you brat! It could be a bomb! Kuma! Stop him!" the red monster yelled.

The purple monster pulled the string.

"_There's a snake in my boot!"_ the doll said.

"Ew! Where's the snake at then?" the purple monster asked, searching the doll.

"You idiot! It's just a toy!" the red monster said.

"Calm down, Senpai," the blue monster said, facepalming himself.

The four found themselves arguing again very loudly, but then a few survivors passed by.

"Um…are you guys zombies?" a survivor asked.

**"EHHHHH!?**" the four monsters asked.

"Ahh! Monsters!" a second survivor said.

"We're Imagin! Not monsters!" the yellow monster said.

"He-hello lady, mind if I reel you in?" the blue monster said to a female survivor. In reply, the female bonked him in the head.

"Owie…" the blue monster said sadly.

"So what happened to this place? This looks nothing like Japan…" the red monster asked.

"Years ago, a small meteorite crashed. It contained the body of a dangerous alien. The corpse infected some scientists, and they became zombies. The zombies were stopped, but one crawled out and started infecting everyone else. And before we knew it, all of this happened!" an old man said.

"**AHHHHHH?"** the four monsters said in surprise.

"It's true!" the old man said.

"Oh no sempai! We're doomed!" the blue monster said.

"This is trouble!" the purple monster yelled, running around.

"So you guys are called Imagin…" the female said.

"Shouldn't you be afraid of us?" the red monster said, sticking his face at the old man. The old man and everyone else did not flinch.

"We got used to the gross stuff," the old man said.

"Oh…" the blue monster said. The yellow monster growled and started to sit down.

"I am hungry," the yellow monster said.

"So what are your names…?" another survivor, a child asked.

"Ryutaros," the purple monster responded, showing a cute picture to the kid.

"Urataros," the blue monster said.

"Kintaros," the yellow monster said.

"Hmmph," the red monster said.

"So your name is Hmmph?" the child asked.

"Ahh!? No! No! It's Momotaros!"


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hey guys, Chapter 7 is up! THREE FRIGGIN MORE TO GO!**

**As I have said earlier, I'll continue Batman: The Beginning after I'm done with this story. Enjoy reading!**

* * *

><p><strong>Prologue:<strong>

The Soujiro Teahouse business was doing well in quarantined Hong Kong.

For a city under quarantine and low morale and depression from the zombie apocalypse, the citizens of Hong Kong seemed to be doing well.

And as for Tendou's employees…

Tendou's most trusted helper was Faisal Dunkshovie, formerly Kamen Rider Unicron, but now Kamen Rider Leopardo. A worm had knocked the rider out during the nuke battle against the zombies, and replaced him. Nobody knew why the worm fought the zombies, but Tendou assumed that it was because the worms didn't want the zombies around.

For an outcast and a supposed target by ZECT, assuming that they thought he had escaped the battle, Faisal was happy where he was. He was continually trained by Tendou, even though the rider hasn't touched his belt in a very long time. But one day Tendou was gone for a week, and Faisal couldn't see Tendou's belt in his usually locked closet, Faisal assumed Tendou went for a little stroll.

Tendou gathered all of the remaining native worms in Hong Kong and hired them to do work at the teahouse, simply to avoid suspicion from the citizens. Faisal felt uncomfortable working around the natives, as he and Tendou were the only humans working there.

"Alright guys gather around!" Tendou shouted as one of the natives put a "Closed" sign on the door. The employees gathered around a large table.

"As for your great service in working at Soujiro Teahouse, I'm hosting a party!" Tendou said with fists pumped in the air. The natives cheered, Faisal simply smirked.

A native pulled out several bottles of beer, and everyone started to chug on a bottle.

"99 bottles of beer on the wall! 99 bottles of beer! Take one around! Pass it around! 99 bottles of beer on the wall!" a native shouted. Everyone started cracking up.

It was the first time Tendou had seemed happy, but Faisal knew there was something behind that great smile. It was odd seeing a disguised native, or a group of them, singing songs and drinking beer.

Tendou then walked up to Faisal.

"Let's talk on the balcony," Tendou offered.

"Sure," Faisal replied. The two walked to the small balcony, which offered a great view of the diminished city and still-smoking buildings out of the city walls.

"You know, life seems a bit rather peaceful now," Tendou said.

"I have to agree, even with all this quarantine stuff, it felt like the invasion had never happened," Faisal replied.

"It feels much safer, having you defend the city," Tendou said.

"Why aren't you?" Faisal asked.

"I'm kind of retired, I've had a lifetime full of battles," Tendou answered. "What I'm looking forward to is just a quiet and calm future."

"I thought you would've started saying one of your grandmother's quotes," Faisal joked.

"Grandmother said, make the most of what you have, it's better to have some than none," Tendou quoted.

"Me and my big mouth," Faisal grumbled, Tendou laughed.

"And I remember you being all stoic and arrogant, now you're just a happy old fool," Faisal added.

"Times have changed, time changes us. It's no longer the past, it's something you shouldn't cling on. I'm a newer person, an ordinary citizen, not some superhero," Tendou admitted.

"But…you're Kabuto," Faisal replied.

"Just because I have that Zecter at my hands and putting it in the belt doesn't mean I'm a hero, my time has come. You think me putting on that belt and getting some suit of armor would mean I'm back to the job? Not necessarily," Tendou reasoned.

"I kinda know where you're getting to now…" Faisal said, ignoring the howls and the drunken laughter of the natives.

Tendou's phone rang, and he answered.

"Hello?" Tendou said.

"Well if it isn't the great-"

"Tsurugi," Tendou said in his old voice.

"Never mind, well where are you," Tsurugi asked.

"You'll find me in Hong Kong," Tendou said simply.

"Well, I'm in South Africa," Tsurugi replied.

"Why on Earth are you there? There isn't a single Clock-Up port left in Africa," Tendou said, putting his hand on his head.

"I'm finding someone," Tsurugi replied with his arrogant voice.

"Who?" Faisal asked.

"Was that Faisal? The damn traitor?" Tsurugi growled, Faisal had grown used to the riders calling him a traitor.

Tendou and Faisal explained to Tsurugi about Faisal's clone at the nuke battle, and what had become of Faisal afterward.

"So that explains it…well I should probably tell Kagami so they can stop trying to find you," Tsurugi calmed.

"They have better things to worry about," Faisal mumbled.

"Does Kagami know where you are?" Tsurugi asked curiously.

"A subordinate of mine made ZECT believe that I am in Moscow," Tendou said, Faisal had a shocked look on his face.

"You did what!?" Faisal yelled.

"So you led them on a wild goose chase," Tsurugi said with an unsurprised voice.

"Kusakabe's there," Tendou replied.

"But he isn't mimicking you anymore," Tsurugi explained.

"Hiyori's with him, Kagami will find her," Tendou replied, his body aching as he said his sister's name.

"Hiyori…I heard they moved the restaurant to there," Tsurugi said.

"They did, and it's not a wild goose chase. Kusakabe has something for them, then they'll find us afterward," Tendou said.

"You're sending them on some mission while they are unaware you're playing the strings," Faisal countered.

"They can't know I'm here, yet. Alex knows, but I told her to remain silent," Tendou said.

"I assume she's going to keep her word?" Tsurugi asked.

"I'm positive," Tendou replied.

"What mission are you sending them on anyway?" Tsurugi asked.

"Supply raid, they already are still reeling from one I'm sure, but what they are also finding is something that is instrumental in the zombies' defeat," Tendou replied.

"The rumored 'key to everything?'" Tsurugi asked.

"It's literally a key," Tendou joked.

"Funny, what's the key for?" Tsurugi asked.

"Only Riku Kagami and I know that information, and I can't tell you anyone else, including Alex and Faisal. The information is too dangerous to let out, for the mean time," Tendou said.

"Keeping secrets from me too huh," Faisal grumbled.

"I gotta go, duty calls," Tsurugi said suddenly.

"Get here soon, I'm expecting you," Tendou said, hanging up.

"What was that all about," Faisal grumbled.

Tendou sighed with exasperation and relief. "Now that that's done, let's just chill out with a drink, Faisal."

"Okay then," Faisal replied, walking with Tendou back into the teahouse and their sleeping rooms, also in the same building as the teahouse.

* * *

><p><strong>South Africa<strong>

"Damn that Tendou, being such a trickster," Tsurugi grumbled. He closed his phone and continued walking through the thick desert. He was in the ruins of a city in South Africa. As he had said to Tendou, he was looking for someone.

And the person he was looking for was Sou Yaguruma.

A quick bio, Sou Yaguruma was formerly part of ZECT, and commander of the ZECT Shadowtroopers.

He was chosen by the TheBee Zecter, making him the first TheBee.

When he heard of Kabuto, he was assigned to stop him at all costs. HisKanzen Chōwa (Perfect Harmony) method was squashed when he went into a fit of rage trying to defeat Kabuto at the risk of his own men's deaths. The TheBee Zecter then abandoned him, and Yaguruma was kicked out of ZECT. He went insane, and stole the KickHopper Zecter from a ZECT facility, and started his new ideology of hell and darkness.

When he told Riku Kagami that he was going to try to find him, he said,

"Are you crazy? He is insane!" Riku shouted.

"I need his help," Tsurugi had said.

As Tsurugi walked on, a couple zombies started to surround him.

"Not you creeps again…" Tsurugi growled.

_"STANDBY!" _the Sasword Zecter crawls out of the sand. It jumps into Tsurugi's hands as he got out the Sasword Yaliber.

_ "_Henshin!" Tsurugi yelled.

_ "HENSHIN!" _yelled Sasword.

Armor started to envelop around Tsurugi as he ran towards the zombies, slashing each one which came towards his path.

Two zombies jumped and lunged towards him, but Tsurugi sliced their arms, as stabbed their heads.

"You won't expect to hit a guy like me!" Sasword shouted.

Each zombie who came close to him fell before they could even strike. A giant zombie stomped towards him, and brought a foot up. Instead of rolling away, Sasword jumped and sliced the foot with great force, making the zombie trip, just missing the rider by a foot.

As the giant got up and limped towards Sasword, the rider hopped up and attempted to stab the zombie, the zombie swatted the rider into a local house half a mile away.

"Nuhhh," Sasword groaned as he used his sword to get to his feet. The giant zombie was just yards away.

"Clock Up!" Sasword yelled as he pressed the Clock Up panel. He ran around the zombie and repeatedly slashed its legs until it fell.

"Time to finish you up!" Sasword shouted as he jumped on the zombie's head.

"The finale! The dessert!" Sasword declared as he brought his sword down on the giant, killing it for good.

"Well, I wonder how they learned to organize," Sasword spoke, talking to the zombie corpses on the ground.

Just then, Sasword was hit with a series of hyperspeed kicks.

"What the!?" Sasword shouted as he was knocked down.

_"Clock Over,_" a Zecter shouted.

Sasword turned, and behind him stood KickHopper.

"Yaguruma…?" Sasword asked.

"You trashed my house," KickHopper growled.

"Not on purpose!" Sasword replied.

"Look at that gaping hole in the house," KickHopper said, pointing to the ruined house.

"That was that giant abomination," Sasword growled.

"Why are you here," KickHopper changed the subject.

"Finding you," Sasword replied.

"And why would the great Sasword need an idiot like me?" KickHopper growled.

"If you give me a chance and stop trying to kill me then sure I'll explain," Sasword said.

"Talk," KickHopper said, crossing his arms.

"Kabuto has a plan to defeat all the zombies, but we need you in it," Sasword stammered.

"Why me?" KickHopper said with curiosity.

"Kabuto still thinks the old Yaguruma is in there," Sasword said, taking off his Zecter.

"I've told him and many others many times, I have accepted the darkness," KickHopper said.

"Where's Kageyama?" Tsurugi asked suddenly.

"He died," KickHopper said, taking off his Zecter and dropping to his knees.

"Hell isn't the same without him," Yaguruma said.

"You can make a change, and come back to the light," Tsurugi suggested.

"Why should I listen to ZECT, or Kabuto for that matter?" Yaguruma said while turning his back on Tsurugi.

"First, I'm not part of ZECT anymore," Tsurugi said.

"Interesting," Yaguruma nodded.

"Second, this is only my and Kabuto's idea," Tsurugi said.

"Okay then," Yaguruma said without emotion.

"And third, you and Kabuto never had that cooking contest," Tsurugi added.

"Now I remember," Yaguruma said.

"And when are you and him going to have that contest?" Tsurugi joked.

"Probably never," Yaguruma said, being without emotion again.

"If you don't help us, you'll never get that chance to beat him badly, and I'm pretty sure you haven't cooked something good in a very long time," Tsurugi reasoned.

"Probably, but since you destroyed my house, I might as well follow you for the meantime," Yaguruma considered.

"Okay, don't you have stuff to get?" Tsurugi asked.

The house exploded.

"No," Yaguruma growled as he crossed his arms.

"Alright then," Tsurugi said as he walked on.

"Where are we going," Yaguruma asked.

"Hong Kong, it's where Kabuto is," Tsurugi said.

"Lead the way then," Yaguruma said. "Just so you know, there won't be any Clock-Up ports for the next 500 miles."

"Noted," Tsurugi grunted.

The two walked on for hours until they reached a town. A tattered sign with unrecognizable words fell from its wooden poles.

"Ghost town?" Yaguruma asked.

"Could be," Tsurugi replied.

The two walked without another word until they reached a tall metal gate which needed a key to go through.

"Strange," Tsurugi said.

"I hear people there," Yaguruma said, pointing to a run-down building that looked like a bar.

"Drunks," Tsurugi scoffed. "Now how do we get through this-

Before he could finish, Yaguruma kicked down the door and soon a large piece of metal crashed onto the floor and broke into pieces.

"-door," Tsurugi finished.

Yaguruma crouched down on the gate and touched the broken fragments of it.

"Glass with bubble wrap and silver-colored spray paint, who was psychotic enough to think that this would hold the zombies?" Yaguruma asked.

"Psychos," Tsurugi said, pointing to some men that were approaching them. They had World War 2-era rifles on hand.

"How dare you knock our door down!?" an old man yelled.

"Who puts a glass gate in the middle of nowhere?" Tsurugi challenged.

"Shut up, they are old geezers, what do they know," Yaguruma said, grabbing Tsurugi's arm.

"May we help you?" a kinder man asked.

"I'd like to ask where the fucking hell are we?" Tsurugi asked, ignoring Yaguruma's remark.

"Old Point, some town we made by ourselves," the man said.

"Old point, old bar, old gate, old people," Yaguruma grumbled, rolling his eyes.

"How long were you here?" Tsurugi asked.

"7 months, living okay," another old man said.

"7 months? And in this condition? Sure the zombies would've killed you," Tsurugi replied.

"The zombies don't come around this part of town," an old woman with a pistol shouted. Several men grunted in agreement.

"But they're everywhere," Yaguruma reasoned.

"We've contacted the other ring of small villages near here, none of them had a scratch from those damn undead, it seems like they are all targeting the big-ass places," an old man said.

"What's yore name sonny?" an old man in a bullet-proof vest asked.

"Tsurugi, Kamishiro Tsurugi," Tsurugi said.

"Yaguruma," Yaguruma said without looking at the men.

"Name's Joe Meek, I run this town, and I suppose you could tell meh why you broke down our door," Joe said.

"For no reason," Yaguruma said with cold eyes.

"Alright then, why don't you come inside," Joe said, beckoning them.

"Alright folks! Back in the bar!" another man said to the rest of the old men. They grunted with annoyance as they headed back to the run-down bar.

As Yaguruma, Joe, and Tsurugi crashed through the wooden doors of the bar, the two newcomers noticed some things: a flat-screen TV, a good-conditioned pool table, an organized wine-room, and nice people.

"You know, for an old town in the middle of South Africa, they seem to be doing just fine," Yaguruma admitted.

"How'd they get a flat-screen TV?" Tsurugi barked.

"You think we old people aren't rich? Or generous?" Joe asked with a crooked eye.

"Uh…no," Tsurugi said, bowing.

"You've seem to come from a long way, you two need some rest," Joe said, looking at them up and down.

"Yeah, we actually fought zombies," Yaguruma said.

"How was that?" a man in the corner yelled.

"Pretty easy if you know what you are doing," Tsurugi answered.

"You look like a Jap, both of ya," another woman said.

"Don't take old Barbara seriously, she likes babbling random things," Joe said.

"Some that are true," Yaguruma shrugged. Joe shrugged as he went to the bartender.

"Get some Budweiser for these two please?" Joe said. The bartender, a pretty Asian lady nodded and went into the fridge, and pulled out two bottles.

"Thank you," Tsurugi said in Mandarin. The Asian lady replied with a "No problem" in Mandarin.

As they both drank, they looked outside at the window. It was actually a beautiful site for a beaten world. They saw farmers working in the ground planting seeds, and men cutting down trees, while a group of them were building a house.

"How many of you guys are there?" Tsurugi asked.

"About a hundred and a half," Joe replied.

"A lot for a small town," Yaguruma said.

"Anyone come through here besides us?" Tsurugi asked.

"Just that Asian hottie and a few others," Joe said, pointing to each of them.

"How many towns are there?" Yaguruma asked.

"About 5, each with almost the same amount of people," Joe replied. "My other brothers run each of them."

"So you have four brothers!?" Tsurugi exclaimed.

"Ehh, and we learned to lead so we brought people to a good remote area and started towns for people to survive in, but for some reason the undead never come near here," Joe replied.

"Really huh…" Yaguruma sighed.

"Well! I'll leave you two here to rest and chat, I got things to do," Joe said, going upstairs.

"Do you think this is all connected?" Yaguruma asked after Joe left.

"What do you mean?" Tsurugi asked.

"The zombies being able to form ranks and organize, the zombies not invading these small towns, and only invading the big cities?" Yaguruma said.

"You really think that something is going on?" Tsurugi asked.

"I'm sure of it, why would they invade elsewhere and not here out of all places?" Yaguruma asked.

"This place is off the charts?" Tsurugi suggested.

"You dumbass, zombies were on you just miles away, and Joe said they never appeared near here," Yaguruma said, punching Tsurugi lightly.

"You have a point, but maybe they only came because I was here," Tsurugi said.

"Exactly! And whoever is controlling the-"

"Wait, you're telling me someone is controlling them?" Tsurugi cut him off.

"Why would the zombies never come here except when the riders are here? Why would the zombies know how to form ranks and surround you? Why would they only show up because you came around here? Why would ZECT lose against them in the first place?" Yaguruma asked.

"I don't think something was controlling them when we were in the nuke battle," Tsurugi replied.

"Well didn't they all come after you riders at once?" Yaguruma asked.

"What point are you making?" Tsurugi asked with curiosity.

Yaguruma pulled out a world map with a bunch of red markings.

"In the time periods of the last battle and the nuke battle between ZECT and the zombies, all the zombies on Earth were in one spot, right here in America except for the New England states," Yaguruma said, pointing to coordinates on one map. He pulled out another.

"Hold up, I thought none of the zombies were in other countries back then," Tsurugi said.

"You idiot! You think the zombies would only linger on one area? Next month, the zombies disperse back into every continent with the zombies' numbers doubled or tripled," Yaguruma said.

"You think they're being controlled," Tsurugi finally said.

"Of course," Yaguruma snapped.

"But how? Either someone had the time to put a billion brainwashing devices on every single zombie or it's some special beacon from somewhere we don't know of," Tsurugi said.

"It could be both, or none, what we know is that the zombies were being controlled," Yaguruma said, crumpling up the maps.

"But ZECT has found prove that the meteor was not being controlled by an outside force," Tsurugi countered.

"That's correct, but someone must've put a beacon on the dead worm, or injected it with something," Yaguruma suggested.

"So you think one of Oswald Boker's scientists or some rogue rider used the worm to their advantage and caused this whole fucking mess?" Tsurugi asked.

"Could be, but I still don't get how whoever did this controlled the zombies," Yaguruma said. The two sat in silence and drank for a while afterward.

"Do you think ZECT figured this out?" Yaguruma asked.

"I'm sure they know. Bruce, Drago, James, and Alex are the best I know, of course they'll figure out something," Tsurugi said. Yaguruma nodded.

"In that case, I'm going to ask where I can sleep," Tsurugi said, walking to the pretty Asian.

"Hey babe, you know where to get a room?" Tsurugi asked.

"Hmmph, fucking rich boy," Yaguruma smirked as he turned to watch TV…

* * *

><p><strong>Hours Later…<strong>

After having some nice sex with that Asian girl in an apartment room, Tsurugi and Nina, the girl, decided to sleep together for the night.

It was fun to have some pleasure for once, after the whole zombie thing and the traveling. It took a lot out of him, and he had decided to go back to his playboy lifestyle for a short while.

Back during the worm times, he was a rich billionaire and a playboy. All his fortunes were gone after the zombies arrived. It was fun to return to the old lifestyle, even though it might've been for only a while.

As he went to the restroom and got out, he received a call.

It was from Yaguruma.

"Heeloo?" Tsurugi asked.

"You gotta come down here," Yaguruma said, in an almost desperate voice.

"What's wrong?" Tsurugi asked, stiffened.

"Zombies," Yaguruma said.

"I'll be down in a minute," Tsurugi said immediately. He glanced at the sleeping Nina, and then grabbed his belt and ran downstairs.

He met Yaguruma by a hill, and the rider looked at him funny.

"What!?" Tsurugi shouted.

"You look funny," Yaguruma chuckled.

"Stick to the main problem," Tsurugi said, rolling his eyes. "You tell Joe?"

"Yeah, he's readying the guys for battle," Yaguruma said.

"Those rifles ain't gonna do anything," Tsurugi said.

They looked back at the fort the townspeople made, and one man activate a railgun, two more activated missile launchers and miniguns.

"You were saying?" Yaguruma asked.

"Dangerous old men," Tsurugi grumbled.

The KickHopper Zecter bounced into Yaguruma's hand, and the Sasword Zecter crawled out of the sand and jumped onto Tsurugi's hand.

"Henshin!" they both yelled at the same time.

_"HENSHIN!"_ the two Zecters announced as their armors formed around them.

"Let's go!" Sasword yelled with his sword out in front of him.

"Way ahead of you!" KickHopper shouted, bringing out two short swords and activating leg spikes.

The two riders charged onto the zombies, with the townsmen firing at the zombies. Some went down in the ensuing gunfire, but the rest kept running. Other townspeople with machine guns came out and started peppering holes in the zombies' heads.

"I think they'll actually live," Yaguruma said. As he said it, a railgun blast shot right through the head of a giant and through several others behind it.

"Awesome weapon," Sasword said.

"I wonder why ZECT lost if they had so much more stuff," Yaguruma replied.

Sasword stabbed a zombie through the stomach and pushed his sword upward towards the zombie's head, then he did a flip-kick on another one, sending it flying towards two running zombies. Sasword threw his sword at a line of zombies, destroying each of them. Sasword ran and grabbed his sword, Sasword activated his infamous "Rider Slash".

_"RIDER SLASH!"_ the Sasword Zecter announced.

Sasword then shouted a battle cry and cut through groups of zombies with each slash, ending each and every one of their undead lives.

Meanwhile, KickHopper used his swords and feet to cut through the zombies. None ever got close as he kept whirling the sharp weapons around in circles, creating a wave of destruction with each slash.

"Give me a real challenge," KickHopper shouted as he pulled up the legs of the Hopper Zecter.

_"RIDER JUMP!"_ the Zecter announced as KickHopper kneeled on the ground, waiting for the right time to jump. As a whole group of zombies were about to strike, KickHopper leaped up into the air, and set the Hopper Zecter's legs back down as he came crashing down.

"_RIDER KICK!"_ the Zecter announced.

KickHopper yelled as he impacted, many zombies exploded as the Anchor Jack on his leg helped him bounce back up for another Rider Kick. He did so for about six times before he landed on the ground, with giant groups of zombies exploding behind him.

"Hey!" Sasword yelled as he ran over to him.

"Where'd you learn to fight so well against those things?" he asked.

"Self-teaching," KickHopper replied.

The townspeople cheered as the zombies were all but gone.

"I do have a feeling, this isn't over," Tsurugi said suddenly.

Suddenly they were being blasted at by guns, when the dust cleared, two figures appeared on the top of the hill.

"Look Shunichi, meal time," a female called.

"Let's go right to the main course Natsumi!" Shunichi replied as he jumped down. Natsumi did the same.

"Who are you?" Sasword asked.

"We are your executioners," Natsumi said with a dark voice.

"And your valued customers!" Shunichi cried.

"As well as…" Natsumi continued.

"Kamen Riders!" Shunichi said as they both put on Rider Braces. Two Zecters hopped into their hands.

"Henshin!" the two called.

"_HENSHIN!"_ the Zecters announced as armor started to form around the two rogue riders.

"_Change! Leaf Mantis! Change! Petal Mantis!" _the Zecters announced as the two riders activated arm blades.

"I am PetalScythe," the pink rider said.

"And I am LeafScythe," the green rider said.

"And we are gonna chop you up," PetalScythe said.

"For dinner!" LeafScythe said as the two riders charged at them.

"Cast Off!" Sasword shouted as part of his armor came off him, hitting the newcomers.

"That wasn't nice!" LeafScythe said.

"Let's return that favor!" PetalScythe shouted. KickHopper ran towards PetalScythe while Sasword aimed his sword at LeafScythe.

KickHopper found himself on the defensive as PetalScythe's blades were getting closer to him every strike. KickHopper found an opening, and kicked the female rider in the stomach.

"So it must be you who is controlling those zombies," KickHopper growled.

"Ha, that is our boss's work, and I thought you were in the dark, not the light," PetalScythe countered.

"Who the fuck do you work for?" KickHopper asked as he parried a strike from the female rider.

"What matters right now is the fight!" PetalScythe screeched as she hit KickHopper with both swords.

Meanwhile, Sasword found himself on the offensive as LeafScythe kept defending himself with his arm blades.

"Why are you attacking us?" Sasword asked as he punched LeafScythe.

"Boss's orders," LeafScythe said as he pressed a button on his arm blades, which started to spout out leaves.

"What the hell," Sasword said as he slashed at LeafScythe, who kept his cool and defended himself. As the leaves got into a greater number, LeafScythe pressed the button again, and the leaves all struck Sasword, bringing him to the ground.

"Ha! That'll teach you!" LeafScythe boasted.

"These guys are tough," KickHopper said to Sasword.

"No kidding," Sasword grunted as he blocked an incoming strike from PetalScythe.

"We gotta work together!" Sasword said.

"Good idea!" KickHopper called.

"In terms of teamwork," PetalScythe began.

"We're the best!" LeafScythe said as both pressed buttons, spouting out leaves and petals that began to bombard the two riders. An explosion followed.

"Ahhh!" Sasword cried.

"Gahhh!" KickHopper groaned as both of them flown up into the air and landed back down with a thud.

"Two of the original riders, beaten so easily?" PetalScythe jeered.

"Never!" KickHopper growled as he dived towards her. As LeafScythe ran to help her, a couple of the townsmen ran and fired at him.

"Ah?" LeafScythe said as he charged at the men.

"Good, he's being distracted, let's get her!" Sasword said.

"I hope you don't get the wrong idea," KickHopper growled.

"Shut up!" Sasword grunted as he slashed PetalScythe with his sword, with KickHopper doing a drop-kick on her. Sasword then threw his sword right at her leg, disabling it. KickHopper threw another sword at her left arm, disabling it as well. She yelled in pain as she landed.

"No more tricks! No more petals!" KickHopper growled murderously.

"Mercy!" PetalScythe groaned.

"Too late," KickHopper growled.

"_RIDER SLASH!"_ the Sasword Zecter announced as venom dripped on the ground from Sasword's saber.

"Ha!" Sasword shouted as he brought the sword down on his opponent, PetalScythe yelled "Shunichi!" as she died.

As LeafScythe stabbed a townsman, he looked towards where PetalScythe's body lay.

"No! No!" LeafScythe growled.

KickHopper scoffed at him, calling him a weakling, as Sasword didn't bother saying anything. He rather let the rider have his moments.

"You. Killed. Her!" LeafScythe yelled with rage as he tried stabbing KickHopper with both arm blades.

"Rider. Slash," KickHopper said as the enemy rider kept running.

"_RIDER SLASH!"_ the two swords announced.

"See that girl of yours in hell," KickHopper growled as he sliced LeafScythe's arms off and stabbed him in the stomach.

"Y-you…j-j-just..didnt…" LeafScythe gasped as he de-transformed unwillingly.

"I. Just. Did," KickHopper growled, kicking Shunichi's body away. He died before he hit the sand.

"You just killed him like that," Sasword said with bewilderment.

"I am the darkness," was all that KickHopper said. "Let us tend to the townspeople…"

"Everyone alright?" Tsurugi asked Joe.

"Well, that girl you fucked last night slept through the whole thing, and we only lost one man, everything here will be fine, lad," Joe said, who had a wrap on his head from a blow by LeafScythe.

"Anything else? We might as well be on our way, we don't wanna endanger you guys," Yaguruma said.

"I have one thing to show you guys," Joe said as he put his arms around the two riders, who accompanied him. Joe led them to a run-down building near the edge of the town with a machine covered in blankets inside. Joe threw the blankets out of the way.

"I thought those zombies would be coming for this thingy," Joe said.

"A functional Clock-up port," Yaguruma said.

"Where the hell did you find this?" Tsurugi asked, feeling very happy.

"Found it when we started building, we figured it was high-tech or radioactive, didn't wanna go near it," Joe said.

"I wonder how the zombies never hit this place," Yaguruma said with surprise.

"Remote location, perhaps," Joe said, shrugging.

"Yup, we can go Hong Kong now," Tsurugi said.

"When I saw you guys fight those zombies, I knew you were part of those pals who fought the worm," Joe said.

"That's us alright," Yaguruma said, smiling for the first time since he turned.

"You wanna get home? This is the place you go home," Joe said. "And I wish you luck, sonny."

"Thanks, Joe," Tsurugi said, bowing to the old man. Yaguruma simply nodded.

"Let's go," Yaguruma said as he transformed into KickHopper.

"Aye," Tsurugi said as he transformed into Sasword. They both activated the Clock-Up port and left the small town, for the big city of Hong Kong…

* * *

><p><strong>Epilogue<strong>

** Hong Kong**

"We're here," Tsurugi said, looking at a tall building.

"Soujiro Teahouse?" Yaguruma asked, puzzled. They both entered the teahouse and ordered a seat, they were immediately directed to a small table with traditional Japanese bamboo mats.

"Cool," Yaguruma said, he had modern clothes on now; a white T-Shirt and blue jeans while Tsurugi wore a white tuxedo and white dress pants.

"So… I wonder where our waiter is," Tsurugi said, tapping the table.

10 minutes later, a man walked out of the kitchen with two cups and a teapot.

"Sorry about this," the man said.

"You know how long this friggin'-"

Tsurugi was cut off when the man revealed himself, taking his hat off. It was Tendou Souji. Yaguruma nodded at him. Tsurugi kept a shocked look on his face.

"Why Tsurugi, you don't want your tea?" Tendou asked.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N:**

**Sorry guys a couple of personal issues had come up, but the next chapter is up. Let's hope I don't stall with the next one any longer. **

**I thank you for your support. **

* * *

><p><strong>Hong Kong, Soujiro Teahouse<strong>

It was two days since Tsurugi and Yaguruma arrived in Hong Kong at Tendou's teahouse.

Tendou was nice enough to let them stay as honored guests, and over the following days, they were talking about their battle plans and what is going to go down.

"Kagami and his riders are already searching for me in Moscow, but they can't even locate the Bistro La Salle…" Tendou grumbled.

"It's smart how you manage a teahouse while they're searching for a restaurant," Tsurugi said.

"When do we head out?" Yaguruma asked.

"When Kagami finds us," Tendou replied.

"You think Kagami's forces are alright?" Tsurugi asked.

"They'll be fine, I know their capabilities," Tendou replied.

"Well then, what exactly is that key they are going to find?" Tsurugi pressed.

"Should I trust you with this information?" Tendou asked, also glancing at Yaguruma.

"You trust me don't you?" Tsurugi asked.

"I never said I did," Tendou replied, getting up.

"After all we've been through, all those worms and battles, you're not going to trust me with the info on how to save the world?" Tsurugi asked.

"He has a point," Yaguruma said, shrugging.

"How do you expect us to save the world if you're not going to trust anyone with this sacred info? You wanna do this alone? You got it then!" Tsurugi said angrily as he walked away.

"There are four locations," Tendou finally said as Tsurugi suddenly came back.

"Four locations, great, now fucking continue," Tsurugi growled.

"San Francisco, Sydney, South and North Poles," Tendou continued.

"And how the fuck are these places relevant?" Yaguruma asked.

"There are these ancient but powerful devices called Core Generators deep in the Earth, recently the ones in San Francisco and Sydney have been unearthed, and since the Core Generators can never be moved, both cities have built buildings around them, the Transamerica Building and the Concert Hall, respectively. The ones in the poles are guarded by ancient cyborgs built to protect them, which would kill anyone who tries to approach at any cost," Tendou explained.

"So the key is used to activate the generators?" Yaguruma asked.

"No, it's used to activate this," Tendou said, pulling out an ancient box.

"That? What the fuck is in that thing?" Tsurugi asked.

"Four coins that are required to activate the Core Generator," Tendou replied.

"Wait a minute, you never told us what the generators will do," Tsurugi pointed out.

"They can do a lot of things, but what we need them to do is wipe the Earth clear of any non-human or non-earth-native organisms," Tendou said.

"But then, the zombies were from Earth, therefore the generator won't do shit!" Yaguruma said.

"The zombies are part-worm, from my analysis. The worm has infected them with its own disease, which contains the worm's DNA, so the generator would pretty much wipe them clean," Tendou explained.

"Hold up, who made these core generators?" Tsurugi asked.

"The Natives in the teahouse," Tendou replied.

"WHAT?" Tsurugi yelled.

"I kept them here for their own protection," Tendou replied.

"Did they create the generators before the Zecters?" Yaguruma asked.

"Negative, while a majority of the worms helped create the Zecters, a fraction of them peeled off to create the Core Generators in case of an invading alien force," Tendou said.

"Then why wasn't it used against the worms?" Tsurugi asked.

"Nobody could activate it since the natives were held captive by worms and the key and box was hidden by them," Tendou said.

"So how are they here now?" Yaguruma asked.

"I saved them, they gave me the location of the box but the key was in Moscow, and since Kusakabe was there, I told him to task Kagami in finding the key, and in turn I would give Riku Kagami "my" location," Tendou explained.

"A smart move that would infuriate them later," Yaguruma smirked.

"Now all we can do is wait for them," Tendou said.

* * *

><p><strong>Moscow, Russia<strong>

"Man, this city is so damn large, how are we gonna find Kabuto?" a rider asked.

"Calm down, we'll find him eventually," James said.

The Moscow Police Force let the riders in after convincing them that ZECT had sent them, but they were afraid that the mass amount of riders would cause too much attention.

"We need them out! Too many riders would cause too many zombies!" the mayor had said.

"Don't focus on driving us out! The real problem is out there!" Kagami had countered.

Eventually, the mayor agreed to let them stay for a short while, after Haku Kamijo had convinced him about their mission.

"I heard that Hiyori and Yumiko-san moved the restaurant to this place, maybe that's why Kabuto's here," Kagami suggested.

"That narrows down our search list, let's find that restaurant," Haku said. As he tried locating the restaurant on his computer, he heard Alex and some others talk about The Big Guy, a deceased rider.

"He was a jerk to me most of the time," a rider said to Alex.

"Acts like he is the toughest one," joked another rider.

"Well, he does have muscles on his muscles. And those muscles have muscles, and those other muscles have muscles on them," Alex said, another trio of riders laughed at the joke.

"What? It's the truth," Alex said indignantly.

All while they talked, Draco walked over to Kagami.

"Wouldn't the Red Shoes effect be taking place by now? Or like months ago?" he asked.

In case you didn't know, the Kabuto and Gatack Zecters were created to endlessly fight the worms, even if they were all destroyed. If not, the Zecters would make the wearer insane.

"Recently after the worms were all gone, my dad and some natives fixed both Zecters, removing the red shoes effect," Kagami said.

"Well then," Draco replied.

"How do you know of the Red Shoes? It was only me, Tendou, and my dad that knew?" Kagami asked.

"Your dad told me and Bruce, since we were his right-hand men," Draco explained.

"Well then, and look we found the restroom," Haku said, walking to the two riders.

"A restroom?" Draco asked.

"I meant restaurant," Haku grumbled.

"Well, I'm sure they don't want a large crowd in a small restaurant," Draco said.

"Everyone, go patrol the city for any threats, check the borders if you must, we're gonna ask for Kabuto's location," Kagami ordered. Most of the riders started walking away, talking to each other.

"I need Alex and James as well," Kagami added, the two walked over.

Kagami nodded to the two, and also nodded to Haku and Draco. They walked in, finding a full house of customers.

"Well, no line at least," Draco said.

"We need to find someone remember?" Haku reminded.

"Yeah, French food later," Draco mumbled.

Kagami walked over to the counter, finding a regular waiter.

"Hello stranger, how can I help you today?" he asked.

"I need to speak to Yumiko-san," Kagami said.

"I'll get her," the waiter said.

"Yumiko-san! Some stranger's looking for you?" Kagami heard him yell.

"I'm coming!" the restaurant manager said. Kagami was relieved to hear his former boss's voice.

As Yumiko came over, she looked up and gave him a surprised look.

"Kagami!?" she cried.

"Yumiko-san!" Kagami cried, giving her a hug.

"I thought you would never come see us again! Hiyori! It's Kagami!" Yumiko said.

Hiyori walked over slowly, eyeing her old friend cautiously.

"Kagami," she said.

"Hey…" Kagami said.

"Well hello ladies, I think you know some bozo named Tendou Souji, you know where he is?" Haku said, walking over.

"Well, let me get Mirai-kun," Hiyori said, walking away.

A few moments later, a well-built man walked over and immediately recognized Kagami.

"Well, I haven't seen you in a very long time," Mirai said.

"Um…I don't know who you are," Kagami said confusingly.

"Come with me and I'll tell you everything," Mirai said, ignoring Kagami's remark. Kagami shrugged and told the rest of them to follow.

As they walked up the stairs to a large weapons room, Mirai grinned at the riders.

"I used to be Kusakabe Souji, but I changed my identity to Mirai Kusakabe, brother of Hiroyi and Tendou," Mirai said.

"You mean Dark Kabuto?" Alex asked.

"I don't like to go by that name? It reminded me of all the trouble I caused everyone back then," Mirai said.

"Oh, then let's try to remember this information," James said rolling his eyes.

"You're funny, but let's talk," Mirai answered. They entered the room and they all sat down.

"So, before we start I'll tell you this, Kabuto is not in Moscow," Mirai said.

"What the hell!?" James shouted.

"You gotta be bullshitting," Draco said.

"I'm not, Kabuto told me himself he's not here," Mirai said.

"Then where is he?" Haku asked.

"He told me not to say, but he did have something for you to do," Mirai responded.

"I can't believe he would start bullshitting us," Kagami said, referring to Tendou.

"He wants you to find a key, something that would help save the world," Mirai continued.

"A key, for what?" Haku asked.

"Something Tendou has in his possession, but we can't tell you until we get that key," Mirai said, fidgeting a bit.

"Where is the key?" Draco asked.

"After a long while, me and the Russian police found the location of it. It's in an abandoned building about five miles from the eastern side of the border. Afterwards, we have to climb to the top," Mirai replied.

"Great. Climbing," Alex growled, rolling her eyes.

"Once we get that box I'll reveal the location of Kabuto, otherwise no," Mirai said.

"Wait," Kagami called.

"What?" Mirai asked.

"Are there zombies there?" Kagami asked.

"I cannot say that there aren't," Mirai said, walking out of the room.

* * *

><p><strong>Later that night…<strong>

Haku eventually gave in to the offer and walked to Mirai, who was looking at the bright night sky.

"You finally gonna accept Kabuto's offer?" Mirai asked without looking at him.

"We have to, what other choice do we have?" Haku asked.

"Why are you speaking to me alone?" Mirai asked. Both Mirai and Haku were in the weapons room, the rest of the riders were eating downstairs.

"I came to ask a question," Haku said.

"What question do you have to ask?" Mirai asked.

"What did it feel like, when you were locked up by ZECT?" Haku asked.

"Why are you asking such a question?" Mirai asked in a more irritated voice.

"Just during Kabuto and Gatack's first defeat from the Cassis Worm, a figure that most looked like Souji Kusakabe-"

"It could've been another worm," Mirai countered.

"I was working with ZECT as a lead scientist that located worms worldwide. As the cassis worm was rampaging, a native broke out of Area Z and adopted the form of Souji Tendou, do you have anything to do with this?" Haku asked.

"Are you sure you checked correctly?" Mirai asked.

"I'm not wrong, back then I was one of the only ones that knew that you were held captive by ZECT, but the details were murky…" Haku stopped and Mirai hushed him.

"I'm a clone of the real Souji Kusakabe worm," Mirai admitted.

"Wait. What?" Haku asked, with a mixture of confusion and nervousness.

"After ZECT captured "the first me", they found some remarkable discovery that they never told us about, after the first me died, ZECT decided to create clones like me so that they could continue the tests. Tendou and Kagami only found one of the clones, me, and I soon got out and became what I am, the rest of the clones were shut down, as I found out after the worms," Mirai explained.

"Maybe we can find out about this clone mystery at wherever we are going," Haku suggested.

"We could," Mirai said hopefully.

"So we should rally the others, I suggest that we head out as soon as possible, right at dawn," Haku added.

"Good, see you tomorrow," Mirai said, walking to his room.

"You too," Haku said, staying outside.

* * *

><p><strong>Morning<strong>

"Alright guys, I'll explain where we are going, if you are all actually in for it," Mirai started after everyone gathered near a large table in the restaurant. The Bistro La Salle was closed for the day.

"Back in the worm days, Riku Kagami had another one of his crazy-ass bunkers built in an isolated spot near this city, Area M," Mirai said.

"We had Area Z in Japan, and that was where the Zecters were built, what did Area M do?" James asked.

"According to these papers, they were responsible for building the arsenal for the newer Zecters and weaponry for the ZECTroopers," Mirai answered.

"But then on this map," Kagami pointed to a highlighted dot, "What's in there?"

"I think it's their main power source for all the weapons or some storage chamber," Mirai said.

"Even if it's an isolated spot, the zombies would've already trampled the place," Haku reasoned.

"The bunker is partially underground, with just part of the roof visible. The roof is made of this strange metal not from Earth, and as far as I can tell, it could withstand many of the zombies' attacks," Mirai said.

"The zombies are probably not smart enough to pry open the doors or open it," Alex added.

"But worms could," Haku countered, everyone glanced at him.

"If any worms survived, alien or native, that would be the first place to go, since many natives and worms probably knew the location of the bunker. Area Z is already deemed too dangerous and crawling with too many zombies, even if there are still some inhabitants in there," Haku explained.

"Great! First zombies now we gotta deal with the worms again, what is this bull?" a rider exclaimed indiginantly.

Mirai ignored the loud rider. "If you think there are worms inside, then we're gonna have to kill them." Many of the riders nodded.

"Then let's head out," Mirai stood up, and the riders walked outside to an empty clearing. Mirai then put on his Rider Belt, called for the Dark Kabuto Zecter, and soon stuck the Zecter into the belt.

_"HENSHIN!"_ the Zecter announced as the rider armor formed around Mirai, who soon cast off after transforming. Many other riders followed suit, calling forth their Zecters and attaching them to their transforming devices. They all soon pressed the clock-up pad and followed Dark Kabuto.

* * *

><p><strong>Area M<strong>

"Well we've arrived," Dark Kabuto said as the riders stopped near a large, locked door.

"Well, do we knock?" Drago asked.

A robotic camera appeared out of a hidden hatch.

"Passcode required," the camera announced.

"We're looking for certain item that may be instrumental to the zombies' defeat," Kagami called, ignoring the passcode.

"Passcode required," the camera announced.

"*3505," Dark Kabuto said.

"Passcode required," the camera announced.

"That's strange, that was the most recent passcode," Dark Kabuto frowned behind his mask.

"I told you, worms," the loud rider said.

"*0849," Dark Kabuto continued, hoping that this other passcode would work.

"Passcode required," the camera announced.

"I had enough of this bullshit," Haku growled as he threw a mini-bomb at the camera.

Inside the bunker, a couple of disguised alien worms grabbed some weapons, ready to defend the bunker from the riders.

"They didn't get the passcode, and since they are humans, they must be destroyed," a worm said.

"Yes sir!" the other worms called.

"Haku, see if you can hack the door," Kagami commanded.

"Already done," Haku pressed a few buttons on his tablet, and the doors opened, the riders soon streamed in.

"Alex, scan for invaders," Kagami commanded.

Drake nodded, and put her Drake Grip in Scope Mode, which is also able to identify incoming threats.

"I see about a dozen worms heading our way, disguised with weapons I can't identify, there could be more inside as well," Drake said.

"Get your weapons ready and blast those sons of bitches!" James called, grabbing a Kunai Gun from the floor.

Before someone else could utter a word, a green energy blast exploded the bullet-proof glass that trapped them, knocking some away.

"What the hell was that?!" a rider called.

"The worms have some serious tech in their hands, going Clock Up is not a wise option," Bat decided as he ran towards the worms, smoke bombs in hand.

"Mirai! The key! That is our focus!" Drago shouted.

"Drago, you, Drake, TheBee, and Gatack go fend off the worms while me and Bat find the key!" Dark Kabuto ordered.

"Understood, find that damn key!" Drago shouted as he pressed "2" on his staff, blasting a worm. Two more came from a door to the right.

"That's our exit," Bat said as he and Dark Kabuto clocked up, attempting to reach the doors. Bat threw some smoke bombs near the worms, preventing them from chasing the riders.

Drake soon appeared from behind.

"I thought we told you to stay with Drago!" Bat called.

"You need extra firepower, the other riders can handle the worms," Drake reasoned.

"Can't go back now, follow me!" Dark Kabuto yelled as they kept running, but they were somehow stopped by an electric barrier. The three riders were flown backwards.

"There must be a barrier that doesn't allow us to clock up," Bat said as he walked through the same area just fine.

"We'll walk then, keep cautious of worms," Dark Kabuto said, getting his Kunai Gun out.

The three riders walked quietly through the many doors and hallways of Area M, but all of the rooms didn't have any signs of life. The riders went into each door, checking for worms, but it seemed as if…

"Looks like most of the worms are fighting, which means we can pretty much find the key without trouble," Drake sighed.

"There's a possibility that there are even more worms waiting for us and guarding the key, we have to stay cautious," Dark Kabuto reminded.

"What if the worms don't even know the key is there?" Bat asked curiously.

"Possible, we have to keep searching," Dark Kabuto said. The three riders walked on quietly, they went down a flight of stairs, reaching a room that said "S.O.U.J.I."

"Hey Mirai, could that be…" Drake asked.

"This could be one of the places you were at," Bat added.

"Did they ever tell you about this place?" Dark Kabuto asked.

"We knew there was a bunker in Moscow, but this room must be underground," Bat replied.

"If so, then the key could be underground here as well," Drake said. The three shrugged and decided to keep walking.

As they walked into the room, they saw a few human corpses on the ground along with devices still partially running. Dozens of weapons were littered on the floor along with a worm tore in half. Far right there was a door, which was labelled "C.L.O.N.E.". The door was sealed shut with a passcode lock, but Drake shot the door open.

"Even further in?" Drake asked with a puzzled voice.

As they kept walking in the dark hallway, they heard explosions from above, courtesy to the ensuing battle upstairs. After finding a light switch, the three riders were shocked of what they saw.

"Holy mother of…" Bat said.

What they saw was a long row of inactive worm, some even looked half human, probably some sort of ZECT experiment.

"This is confusing, ZECT used to fight the worm with all means necessary but also experimented them like crazy," Bat grumbled.

"Can't blame them," Drake said. "I'm gonna start calling these things experiments."

Just then, a couple of stray worm stopped the riders.

"Let's kick some ass," Bat yelled as he got out a batarang. Drake shot at a worm as it tried to swipe at her face.

Dark Kabuto got out his kunai and threw it at one of the worms, making it explode. He grabbed the kunai and then started slashing the other worms, making them bleed. He then pressed his "Clock-Up" pad, and in less than a second the worms were nothing but dust.

Drake kept backing up and shot at the worms, having found that she was not used to fighting worms. A worm brought its alien hand up as if it was going to smack her, but she dodged and hit the worm in the back with the back of her fist. She continued shooting at the worms, who couldn't hit her.

Bat was hopping around the whole place, confusing the worms and making them hit each other. His strategy worked as the worms all surrounded him, and ran towards him, but he left a grenade on the floor and jumped high into the air. The worm exploded as they ran to where he originally was.

"Now that that is done, let's find that damn key," Drake said, shooting the last worm until it burst into flames. The two riders nodded as they continued their search.

They continued walking through the hallway, examining each of the worm experiments, some worm had remained the same, others had been drastically changed from their original structure and shape. At the end of the hall, a huge metal door, one similar to the tunnel door back in the supply building at Shibuya, was locked with the letters H, T, K, E, Y, H.

"What could this be?" Bat asked.

"The key, the six letters are merely scrambled," Dark Kabuto said as he shot the door open. And what they were looking for, was only a few feet away.

"Well, let's snatch that thing and get the hell outta here," Bat grumbled, getting a batarang just to be safe. Drake pointed her gun near the door.

Dark Kabuto walked up to the large container where the key was, and shot the glass. The key, an ancient-looking object with glowing gems and a spiky handle soon fell into Dark Kabuto's hands. At that moment, an alarm started to blare. The reinforced glass holding the worm experiments shattered into pieces and the experiments came to life and stalked slowly towards the three riders.

"We're screwed," Drake yelled, shooting at an experiment which went down in one shot. Bat threw three exploding batarangs, killing a cluster of experiments. Dark Kabuto pressed his Clock Up pad, and weaved around the experiments and started slashing them. He was intercepted by a worm which was slightly faster than him. As he fell on the ground, a couple of other worms started kicking and slashing him.

"Shit!" Bat yelled as he pressed a few buttons on his gauntlets, as well as grabbing six batarangs.

_**"**__RIDER EXPLOSION_" the Bat Zecter announced as Bat threw the batarangs, which destroyed more experiments and blew Dark Kabuto off towards a computer screen.

"Shit!" Bat yelled again as he dodged a worm attack and kicked it in the back.

Drake covered Dark Kabuto as she roundhouse kicked an experiment in the "face", then dove under an experiment's long spider-like legs and shot it in the back a couple of times and threw the corpse at a couple of other experiments. Drake then ducked under an experiment's arm and shot it in its wide, gaping mouth, making the experiment scream in pain. She pressed her Clock Up pad, slowing down time and pulling the throttle on the Drake Zecter.

"_RIDER SHOOTING_" the Drake Zecter announced as energy formed around the Zecter. Drake pulled the trigger and a giant ball of blue energy split into fifteen smaller energy balls and decimated a large portion of the experiments.

Meanwhile, Dark Kabuto was still reeling from the batarang explosion, and struggled to get his head out of a flaming computer screen.

"Next time tell me to move," Dark Kabuto thought as he scrambled up.

A human-like experiment lunged at Dark Kabuto, who grabbed the broken computer screen and shoved it onto the experiments' head, then was thrown into a row of weapons stacked onto the wall. After Dark Kabuto dealt a finishing blow, he noticed a small door.

"What the hell could this be," Dark Kabuto said to himself.

Checking if the key was in his hands, Dark Kabuto put it in a small pouch slung over his back and pushed the remains of the weapons rack. The door was guarded by a large layer of chains, which Dark Kabuto had easily sliced up, but there was a lot of dust on the letters. Dark Kabuto brushed it away and read the letters.

"T, E, N, Tendou?" he said in a shocked voice. A couple of experiments heard him and ran towards him, but Dark Kabuto closed the door before they could come in.

"Where the hell did he go?" Drake asked as she blasted an experiment.

"Some hidden room, maybe it has more information, but we gotta hold off these things!" Bat replied as he threw an experiment into a stack of cardboard boxes filled with experimental blood.

* * *

><p><strong>T.E.N.D.O.U. <strong>

As Dark Kabuto had made sure that there was no one in there, he decided to de-transform.

"If Tendou's name is on the door this must be a damn place of importance they didn't want anyone knowing about," Mirai thought as he glanced at countless folders that lined the shelves, then shuffled through a stack of papers, hoping to get some information. All he found was files about Mirai's clone brothers. As Mirai accidentally dropped a paper, it drifted towards a computer screen, then hit the keyboard, turning the computer on. Mirai shrugged and sat down on a chair.

"Let's see, documents…weapons…Skype…Internet Explorer…ZECT…I think I found it, Project Clone," Mirai said as he looked at the icons on the screen.

He opened the folder, and clicked on "Cloning", Mirai got a long list of videos with dates on them. Mirai clicked on the bottom one, the oldest one.

"April 1st, 1989?" Mirai exclaimed, he clicked on the video.

The video started showing a young Tendou with his parents, being attacked by natives. A native captures Tendou and the video shifts to a room where Tendou is strapped to a pod, which several wires attached to the pod. A scientist activates it, with a small Tendou screaming as another individual appears in a separate pod, an exact clone of Tendou.

"Holy mother of…" Mirai gasped.

"Souji Kusakabe, also known as Test Subject 001, has successfully made a clone, 002, we will be releasing him out on the streets for the main time, as we have other plans for Test Subject 001," a voice says. Mirai then recognizes the room he is in as the room in the video.

"If this is the room, then there must be a pod with a clone," Mirai thought.

He looked around the room, then back at the video, searching for the spot the pod was possibly located at. He found the spot, but there was no pod, but he did find a hatch underground.

"What could this be?" Mirai asked himself as he tried to open it, no good. He opened the door using a lever, which brought the pod to view. Inside the pod, was Tendou, but half of Tendou, literally.

"What the hell…that means this is the real Tendou, and the one everyone has known their whole life is…a clone?" Mirai asked to himself, stepping back in complete horror until he fell on the floor.

"Tendou's a clone…" Mirai murmured, "I can't let him or the others know."

Just then, the door opened, revealing Bat and Drake's faces.

"You all right? You look like you've seen a ghost," Drake remarked.

"Bat! This place is rigged to blow!" Gatack shouted via intercom.

"We gotta get the hell outta here," Bat said as Drake helped Mirai up, who put back the Dark Kabuto Zecter onto his belt.

"Why did they need Tendou? Why not some other ordinary person?" Dark Kabuto thought, but he put aside what he learned at the secret room, all he worried about now was getting out.

"What of the worms?" Drake asked Gatack as they went back to the riders.

"All dead and accounted for," a rider answered for him.

"How much longer until this place blows?" Bat asked.

"30 seconds," another rider reported.

"Clock up and meet up at the restaurant roof," Kagami ordered, the riders nodded, and then escaped.

Within 10 seconds, they were on the roof of the Bistro La Salle, watching as the bunker exploded.

"At least now no one is gonna find out about Tendou," Dark Kabuto said.

"What?" a rider asked.

"No nothing," Dark Kabuto replied, thinking "Did I just say that out loud?"

Many of the riders took their Zecters out, letting them fly away.

"You have the key right Mirai?" Kagami asked.

"Yeah, it's right here," Mirai said, giving the key to him.

"After we rest up, we'll meet up with Tendou," Kagami ordered. The riders nodded in acknowledgement and began climbing down the fire escape.

"Hey Mirai, what did you see in there?" Haku asked as they went to the ground.

Mirai breathed the fresh air in relief, but experienced a chill on his spine, like there was something telling him to not reveal the secret.

"It was nothing, old information that doesn't seem important now," Mirai lied.

"Okay I guess, but I swear it was like you saw a ghost," Haku replied.

"Some images took me aback, that's all," Mirai concluded.

"Well, at least we got what we needed, all we have to do is go to Tendou now," Haku replied, walking away.

"Mirai, do we have any place to sleep?" Draco asked.

"I'll book a hotel for you guys and send you the coordinates," Mirai said without looking at him.

"Great, catch you tomorrow," Draco said, meeting up with two other riders.

Mirai then sighed and went into the restaurant, and found Hiyori cleaning a couple of plates.

"How was it?" she asked.

Since she was Tendou's sister, Mirai wanted to tell her, but he didn't want her feeling depressed or anything.

"Everything's fine, just tired," Mirai replied.

"Alright then," Hiyori said, completely ignoring Mirai afterward.

"You have a knack of knowing who a rider really is, like you just stumble upon something or someone and you just know that the person is a rider," Mirai joked.

"I noticed," Hiyori said with the same voice.

"You're usually not like this," Mirai said.

"After the zombies came, a lot of loved ones had died. I got over my grief, as well as most emotions, it's hard to feel happy or sad," Hiyori explained.

"I see," Mirai said, walking up to his sleeping quarters.

As he went in and went face-first onto his bed, he began thinking about what he had just saw.

"Is there something more behind this zombie thing?"

* * *

><p><strong>Hong Kong, Soujiro Teahouse<strong>

The phone rings.

"Hello?" Tendou asked.

"We got the damn key, now what?" Haku asked in a menacing voice.

"Great, now you come to Hong Kong," Tendou replied, unfazed.

"That's it? No thank you?" Haku asked.

"I can thank you later, but it should be me who you are thanking," Tendou said calmly.

"What the hell are you blabbering about?" Haku growled.

"We need the key for opening the coins that will be inputted into the core generators, you did a good job for retrieving it, and after a short rest I recommend you start journeying here," Tendou said, pulling a splinter out of his finger.

"Alright then, we'll meet you later," Haku replied, hanging up. Yaguruma ran next to him a moment after.

"Zombie attacks are getting increasingly high in the last few days," he reported.

"It looks like your arrival has motivated them, the next few days shall be interesting," Tendou said, crossing his arms.

* * *

><p><strong>Unknown Area <strong>

"So one of the Tendou clones has found out about his origins," a deep voice boomed.

"Yes sire, but our Moscow bunker has been obliterated by the implanted bombs we put ages ago," a minion said.

"A bold move I should say," another minion said.

"We wouldn't want outsiders finding out about this piece of info," the deep voice said.

"It is a good thing that the clone decided not to reveal anything," a third minion said.

"And he better keep his mouth shut about it," the deep voice growled.

"Sire! One of the masked demons has raided an outpost, all efforts to destroy him have failed," a soldier said, rushing to the tall building the three minions and the deep voice were in.

"Not all efforts, let the demon go with his business, whatever he does he can't destroy me," the deep voice boomed once again. "Minions, leave me."

As the minions had left, the deep voice then looked at the map and chuckled a bit.

"Everything is going as planned."


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N:**

**Hello all! The long-awaited Chapter 9 is now live! Finishing the last chapter will be my highest priority and I will not post any other chapters of any other stories until that is done!**

**I have not quit the Batman story guys don't worry; I was on a block.**

* * *

><p><strong>Hong Kong, Soujiro Teahouse<strong>

"Zombie attacks are growing at a rapid rate with the Chinese Defense Forces struggling to keep the zombies from invading the city. General Tseng of the CDF has suggested bringing eager citizens into the fight, so if you want to start mowing down zombies, you may go to the recruitment camp at the border," a news reporter says on the scene of a battle.

"As if two riders along with the freaking military aren't enough," Tsurugi complained. "The citizens are gonna ruin our battle plans."

"Some of them are going to, but General Tseng has already told everyone he needed reinforcements, the other quarantined cities don't have any to spare, so the citizens are his last option," Tendou replied.

"That sucks," Yaguruma said. "We're on the verge of losing anyway."

"I've warned Kagami's riders to not clock up on the way here, as there are too many zombies that would ambush them, the most they'll take is a week to get here. Air travel has been suspended," Tendou explained.

"We'll have to wait the zombies out until Kagami arrives then," Tsurugi replied.

On Tendou's computer was a digitized map of Hong Kong, a red spot appeared on the eastern border of Hong Kong.

"Ahh, more zombies on the eastern border, I suggest you two get going," Tendou asserted.

"You not going again huh," Yaguruma retorted.

"As I have told you before, I have my reasons," Tendou countered.

"Bullshit reasons," Tsurugi rolled his eyes as he and Yaguruma left.

As they ran down the teahouse and out to the street, Yaguruma noticed Tsurugi scowling.

"I don't get why Tendou never helps us with this stuff," Tsurugi growled.

"He probably has a good reason; I used to trust his judgment, and I feel no different about it even now," Yaguruma reasoned.

"Whatever, we're just gonna have to protect the city without him," Tsurugi growled as he got on his motorcycle. Yaguruma hot-wired a car and they started driving towards the zombie area.

"You would just steal some random-ass car," Tsurugi mocked.

"Being a good person isn't exactly my forte," Yaguruma admitted.

"As of what we are dealing with right now, it doesn't matter who is good or bad, if you fight the zombies, you're good enough," Tsurugi said.

"You're right, I guess. Let us go then," Yaguruma replied as he started the car.

They drove and rode for about a good ten minutes before they got to the scene, a couple of citizens were shooting at the zombies, but many of them were unaffected by their simple bullets, it was only thanks to the technology developed by ZECT and a band of organizations that they were able to hold off the zombies.

Yaguruma poured gasoline in the back of the car, then he transformed into Masked Rider KickHopper, he jumped out of the car after making it go a hundred and forty miles, KickHopper then threw a lighter at the car; it exploded several zombies.

Tsurugi transformed into Sasword, and started to slash zombies on his motorcycle. He continually confused the zombies by moving unpredictably around them.

"Ha! Feels like a horse!" Sasword yelled.

While KickHopper struck a zombie with a crowbar he found, he flipped over a zombie and kicked it from the behind. As he landed, KickHopper did a flip kick on a running zombie. He then grabbed a rock, and shoved it through a zombie's head.

A few zombies disabled Sasword's motorcycle with their various random abilities, like acid breath or rock spit. Sasword was forced to get off his motorcycle and he started to slash a few zombies before pressing the "Clock Up" pad.

"Damn it!" Sasword thought as he remembered that zombies tracked fast movements, he was too used to pressing the pad, and he knew the bad habit would get him killed.

KickHopper pulled the legs of his Zecter up, activating his "Rider Jump", he squatted and then jumped high into the air, narrowly avoiding a zombie's bite, and he pushed the legs of his Zecter back down, activating his Rider Kick. He yelled out "DIE!" as his foot collided with many zombies while he hopped up and down.

Sasword's Clock Up was interrupted as a zombie hit his face ferociously, nearing cracking the eyepiece of the mask. He cursed and reset the tail of his Zecter back to its "up" position, and brought it back down, activating his Rider Slash. He backed away from the crowd of zombies, and began slashing into the air, sending venomous waves of poisonous energy destroying the zombies.

As the two riders met back with each other, they nodded.

"Well that's done," Yaguruma said as he de-transformed. Tsurugi almost did the same before Yaguruma's phone rang.

"It's Tendou," he said. Sasword nodded, signaling him to answer it.

"Hello," Yaguruma said.

"Zombies are overrunning the city! I need help to get out, get over here quick!" Tendou yelled.

"Where's the Kabuto Zecter?" Sasword asked.

"I'll explain later, but right now I can't transform, just help me," Tendou said.

"On our damn way," Yaguruma said as he transformed again. They clocked up to the teahouse, which was in flames. Tendou was inside. The two riders quickly nodded to him and carried him out before an explosion racked the building.

They kept going until they reached a hill, Yaguruma looked for zombies, but none were in sight.

"We're safe," he said.

Tsurugi de-transformed, and examined Tendou.

"Where's the Kabuto Zecter?" he asked.

"In my bag, but I couldn't transform," Tendou said weakly.

"What happened?" Yaguruma asked.

Tendou pointed to his right arm and leg, they were zombie bites.

* * *

><p><strong>Somewhere between Moscow and Hong Kong…<strong>

"How much longer…" a rider grumbled.

"We still have quite a way to go, we were advised not to Clock Up," Kagami answered.

"I call bullshit," a second rider complained.

"Clock Up, and you'll have zombie-shit up in your face," Draco responded. The rider stopped complaining right after.

The riders continued hiking for a good three miles until Haku suggested taking a break, many of them took off their Zecters.

It has been a week since the riders had raided the bunker in Moscow, they had found the key needed to open the coin box for the Core Generators, and defeated a great number of worm as well. Mirai had chosen to stay behind, saying he didn't want to be involved in the conflict any longer, Kagami had accepted his choice.

As the riders took a seat on the sand, they began passing around canteens of water. A couple of riders stood on guard for zombies, but then, there weren't any of them for the past 50 miles.

"Hey," Haku said to Kagami.

Kagami quickly cut to the chase, "There haven't been any zombies for a long while, what do you think about this?"

"We already know that the zombies are being controlled by someone, or something, but wouldn't they want us dead by now? There's like I don't know, 30 riders? We are lucky we lost none on the way here," Haku explained.

"Have you ever examined any of the zombie brains and their mind-controlling devices, and remember the Cobra Riders said that they were controlling the zombies? I was thinking, that-"

"They tricked us, I think you're right. They thought that killing them would be the end of it, but I honestly think there is something else controlling the zombies, not the Cobra Riders," Haku answered.

"So, about the devices?" Kagami rolled his eyes irritably.

"Many of the brains I found have either no chip or they have been destroyed, I saw a chip burning itself, probably to prevent us from gathering intel on who is manning the zombies," Haku said.

"Were any of them undamaged?" Draco asked, coming over.

"One, but after some time, I've found nothing on it valuable," Haku replied.

"Was there any information at all?" Kagami pressed.

"None, I think the device erased everything as a fail-safe, the only info I got was who the zombie used to be, but as of now, that's nothing," Haku finished.

"We should get moving, before any zombies find us," Draco said, walking away from the two. Kagami nodded and followed him.

The group of riders kept walking for another five miles, a rider had conveniently found someone's map on the floor, it showed a route from Moscow to Lamma Island, which was close enough to Hong Kong.

"Honestly, I thought we should've brought a plane," a rider said, others nodded in agreement.

"I rather not have us shot out of the sky, thank you," another rider grunted.

"Who's gonna shoot us outta the sky?" the first rider said in an annoying voice.

"My mom," the second rider responded. A few riders chuckled.

Just then, as they went into an abandoned tunnel, a female zombie jumped the rider, and started to chew on him.

"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP! IT'S GOT ME!" he shouted as blood seeped out of a neck wound.

Many riders were quick to react, but by the time they shot the zombie in the head multiple times, the rider was already on the floor having a seizure.

"No, no, no," a rider said. Haku rushed quickly to the zombie and started scanning it's brain.

"What are you doing?" Kagami asked.

"Trying to get info before the chip burns itself," Haku quickly said as he tried to look at the chip's scrambled frequencies.

The bitten rider put his Zecter on his belt all of a sudden and grabbed Draco Stark by the throat, the "zombie" had already gotten into him, he was no longer human.

Draco Stark grabbed his staff and whacked the zombie rider and it released him. A couple of other riders transformed and began to beat down the zombie rider, regardless that he was a former ally. The rider soon went down as it lay dead from a bashed brain.

"Kagami! Kagami! Look at this," Haku shouted. Kagami sprinted to him.

"I've got some info here! Look before it goes!" Haku exclaimed.

"What the hell…? The info is going to fast…" Kagami complained.

"Don't worry, it's going to my hard drive," Haku responded.

The two riders tried reading the info anyway, most of it was mumbo-jumbo; information about who the zombie used to be, but then came some extra info about the Core Generators, the Key, the Box, something about Charydbis and Scylla, and then it said "the end!" and it was all over.

"What is Charydbis and Scylla?" Kagami asked.

"In Ancient Greek myths, they were two large monsters that resided on the Sea of Monsters, they were dangerous, and countless men had fallen before them," Haku responded.

"I'm guessing they are rogue riders," Alex said, walking over.

"If they are, then they must be really dangerous," Kagami replied.

"Stupid, stupid! Stupid zombie!" Draco growled.

"Why do you think it was there?" Haku asked.

"Well, if the system was willing to let us look at their information, the proposed Charydbis and Scylla must be sending us a warning," Kagami proposed.

"Makes sense, and we just lost a rider as well," Draco grumbled. The rest of the riders threw the dead zombies away.

"Also as a means to stall us?" a rider brought up, many murmured in agreement.

"That must mean…" Kagami realized what was happening.

"They must be preventing us from finding Tendou, and worse, Hong Kong is probably under siege!" Draco yelled.

"Hey everyone! Look at this!" a rider yelled. Many of them rushed over to him.

"It's a garage…" another rider said.

A rider ran up to Kagami. "Do you know what this means?"

"What? So you think that-"

"There are cars under here!" a rider triumphantly finished his sentence.

Kagami looked at Alex, Draco, and Haku.

"Don't tell me they are joking," Haku said. Kagami ran to the crowd of riders.

There indeed was a garage, it was mostly buried underground, but the riders had already started digging through for an entrance. After a while, the riders pried open the reinforced door. In the garage were a dozen modified Nissan Frontiers and a Chevrolet Suburban 1500. They had machine guns attached on them as well as supplies they found in the back trunk.

"Thank god whoever left this here," Kagami breathed.

Haku examined a damaged right hand that must've belonged to a human or a zombie, and tossed it aside.

"Whoever owned this vehicles must've died trying to get to them," Draco concluded.

"Whatever the case, no keys," a rider said, searching the garage.

"Of course," Kagami replied.

"I can hot-wire the cars," Haku offered.

While Haku hot-wired the cars, Kagami ordered the riders to pack their things and put them in the back trunks, many of the original supplies were dumped because they were not needed, already owned, or worn out. The machine guns were kept though, they didn't fire bullets, they fired laser-powered nails.

"Good enough, more efficient than bullets at the very least," Kagami thought.

"All done!" Haku shouted as he hot-wired the Chevrolet. The riders started to get in the cars, with some of them standing in the back of the pick-up trucks, manning the machine guns.

"Yes, now let's go to Hong Kong!" Kagami commanded.

* * *

><p><strong>Outside of Hong Kong<strong>

"I'm gonna kill you!" Tsurugi yelled as he got his Sasword Yaiba out.

"Wait!" Tendou shouted as he dodged a couple of sword swipes from Tsurugi.

"If you're gonna turn into a zombie, I'm gonna kill you before that happens!" Tsurugi yelled with tears coming from his eyes. Yaguruma stood a couple of feet behind them, watching them with a shocked look in his face.

"I need to explain!" Tendou yelled.

"Explain what?!" Tsurugi retorted.

"Something you should know!" Tendou replied.

"No!" Tsurugi yelled as he kicked Tendou down, but Yaguruma kicked the blade out of his hand.

"Enough! Let him explain!" Yaguruma yelled.

"But he was-"

"Shut up and let the guy talk!" Yaguruma replied.

There was a long pause, but Tsurugi repented and nodded.

"Talk, or you'll die," Yaguruma commanded.

"Alright, so I was bitten years ago by another zombie as well," Tendou began.

"What the fuckin' hell?" Tsurugi growled.

"But after a few days, nothing happened, and it was strange, that's when I found out that my body must be immune to the zombie virus," Tendou continued.

"Wait, weren't there other people who were immune as well?" Tsurugi asked.

"There were, but the zombies were able to find them and kill them before they posed any danger," Tendou replied.

"So you're the last person that is immune to the zombie virus," Yaguruma breathed.

"If scientists found out, you'd be used as a lab rat for a cure!" Tsurugi realized.

"I laid low for years, waiting for the bite to heal, eventually I went to Hong Kong to start a teahouse, but before that I found Faisal," Tendou said.

"Speaking of Faisal…where the hell is he?" Tsurugi asked.

"_CLOCK OVER"_ a Zecter announced as Faisal de-transformed.

"My my, Faisal, I thought I told you not to Clock Up in the midst of zombies," Tendou replied.

"I was helping the citizens get out, I've already directed them to other cities, they'll be safe, I'm sure," Faisal reported.

"How about the city?" Yaguruma asked.

"It's gone…" Faisal said.

"So you're immune to this zombie infection…how are you sure it won't somehow come back and turn you into a zombie?" Tsurugi went back to the main subject.

"It won't," Tendou said justly.

"Wait, what's this about Tendou-san being immune to the zombie infection?" Faisal asked.

Tendou explained to his pupil about his bites, his immunity and all the crap he explained at first.

"I think we should hit the road, find Kagami, he'd be on his way here," Tendou said.

"He has the key with him, right?" Yaguruma asked.

"Haku Kamijo has it, we'll run into them eventually. Come on, let's find our bikes," Tendou said.

Faisal helped Tendou walk after treating the bite wounds, while Tsurugi and Yaguruma had transformed into Sasword and Yaguruma to guard them, it was a 15-minute hike from their location to the garage their bikes were in. Strangely, there were no zombies chasing after them.

When the garage was visible, Tendou shook Faisal off.

"I can manage," Tendou said.

Sasword and KickHopper examined the garage door, which was spring-loaded. If any one of them let go, the door would immediately come speeding towards the other. Usually, a simple button would open the doors, but the button was apparently damaged.

"Faisal, I need you to transform and push the bikes out," Sasword said.

"How?" Faisal asked.

"We're gonna hold the doors for you until all four of them are out, but you need to be quick. Tendou, I need you to hook this on the door," Yaguruma replied as a nodding Tendou grabbed a sturdy rope with a small loop on it.

"Alright," Faisal said as he called for the Leopard Zecter, it leaped onto his hands and he put the zecter on a rider belt.

_"HENSHIN!_" the Zecter announced as armor began to materialize onto Faisal, he nodded for them to start, Tendou hooked the rope onto an opening.

"Alright, 1, 2, 3!" KickHopper grunted the last number as he, Tendou, and Sasword used all their might to pull the door.

"I can't hold this shit!" Sasword yelled.

"You have to!" Leopardo yelled as he dived into the garage, pushing his own bike out first.

Leopardo ran back into the garage and found a few useful rider weapons as well and threw them near the bike before pushing Yaguruma's bike out.

"I'm losing my grip!" Yaguruma grunted.

Leopardo then ran towards Tendou's bike, starting to push it out.

"You do that he gets screwed!" Tendou replied as Leopardo ran back for the last bike.

"God damn! Mother of fuckin' Jesus!" Yaguruma cussed out loud, probably attracting all the zombies still in Hong Kong.

"Alright! Almost done!" Leopardo yelled as he was halfway through pushing the last bike.

"Aghhh!" Sasword yelled as he let go, the door went closing in on high speed, but Leopardo managed to hop out before the doors closed, Yaguruma let go of the door just before they closed, Tendou's rope snapped as well.

The three riders were panting and shaking their hands, Tendou chuckled, saying "You're lucky I was there."

"Just thinking that," Leopardo replied.

The four riders then went on their motorcycles and started riding away from Hong Kong, hoping to find Kagami's group on the way.

As they rode through the desert, Tendou's vision started to blur and he fell off from his bike.

"Tendou!" Faisal yelled as he went back for him, but Tendou started to roll off a hill. He finally stopped at a pool of quicksand, and Tendou, unconscious, was already sinking into the sand.

Faisal ran to him as Yaguruma and Tsurugi scrambled back, Faisal grabbed his hand and desperately tried to lift him up, but Tendou was too heavy; Faisal's foot began to sink downward.

"Help me over here!" Faisal screamed.

"I got you guys, what the hell happened to him?!" Tsurugi growled.

"He just fell off his bike," Faisal stammered. Tendou was stomach-deep in sand.

"Whatever, it must be from the zombie bites," Tsurugi said as he pulled Faisal and Tendou. Yaguruma helped pull Faisal's hand.

"Bah! This is the second damn time we're trying to grab something that's heavy as fuck," Yaguruma grumbled.

It took a while, but they eventually pulled both of them out of the sand, they were once again breathing heavily and shaking their hands.

"If this shit happens again I might as well amputate my hand…" Tsurugi complained.

"Just thinking that," Yaguruma replied.

As they sat on the hill exhausted, Faisal offered to watch the bikes. Night soon fell, and Tsurugi and Yaguruma began to doze off.

After it was Tsurugi's turn to keep watch, Tendou began to wake up.

"Oh god…what the hell?" Tendou said blearily.

"Tendou," Tsurugi looked backward.

"What the hell happened?" Tendou asked.

"You fell off your bike and stuff happened," Tsurugi answered.

"I don't remember that…" Tendou replied, rubbing his head.

"You went unconscious, we think it was the zombie bites," Tsurugi said.

"The zombie bites…" Tendou echoed.

"Well, you alright?" Tsurugi asked.

"Fine," Tendou responded before Tsurugi had finished. "It's nothing."

"Arrogant, as always," Tsurugi recalled.

"I could say the same thing for you," Tendou replied. "Except, much more arrogant than me."

"There's no room for proving superiority now, we're at war with an enemy we don't know," Tsurugi said.

"The zombies," Tendou replied.

"You might not believe me, but I believe there is something controlling the zombies," Tsurugi reasoned.

"Mind-control," Tendou said.

"Where did you here this from?" Tsurugi asked curiously.

"Kagami sends me texts regarding important information, but lately, none of us has had a great connection," Tendou replied.

"Always so damn prepared," Tsurugi grunted.

Tendou spit at the sand, "Not for zombie bites."

"Now that was unlike you," Tsurugi chuckled.

"Maybe it…." Tendou paused.

"What?" Tsurugi asked.

"Shut up," Tendou tensed up and put his hand over Tsurugi's mouth.

"The hell do you…" Tsurugi grumbled before he saw the zombies that were approaching them.

"Those motherfuckers…" Tsurugi growled as he started to wake Yaguruma and Faisal up.

"Time to bite back," Tendou said calmly as he called for the Kabuto Zecter, the small robot attacked a few zombies before coming to Tendou's grasp.

"Henshin," Tendou called.

_"HENSHIN!"_ the Zecter announced as armor formed around Tendou as he ran towards the zombies at full speed with Kunai Gun in Axe Form in hand.

Kabuto slashed at a zombie with the axe and kicked another behind him. He then threw the axe like a tomahawk at a zombie's head, it went straight through and impaled another zombie's head, bringing it down. Kabuto dived between two zombie's legs and grabbed his axe and shot a few zombies in the head. He was soon joined by Leopardo, who shot a few zombies with his Claw Gun and then proceeded to slash at some zombies.

Yaguruma woke up in the midst of the chaos, muttering some curse words before a zombie jumped straight in his face, Yaguruma ripped its head off in instinct and transformed along with Tsurugi, and they charged straight at the zombies.

Leopardo soon used "Cast Off" and found himself more comfortable in the more agile form. He had not clocked up as of the aftermath of the "first zombie war" and had decided to try it now. The Leopard Zecter's agility was something that the Unicorn Zecter didn't have, but Leopardo's strength was not as great.

The rider jumped and twisted a few times in the air before slashing the zombies with the Leopard claws, he leaped at a zombie and grabbed his head before throwing the zombie at a crowd of its own.

Sasword and Yaguruma fought together and managed to keep the zombies from "forming ranks", disrupting their formations every time they "tried". Sasword kept slashing multiple zombies at once and basically being an untouchable foe. Yaguruma was another threat to the zombies; like Sasword, he was untouchable as well.

Kabuto slashed at zombies and cut them into pieces like they were butter, he decided to increase his power by calling to the Hyper Zecter, but to his surprise, it did not appear.

"Damn…" Kabuto thought. "Is someone using it right now? Or is it not going to me on purpose?"

As Kabuto used Cast Off and started to jab at enemies with his kunai, the Hyper Zecter slowly flew towards Kabuto, who attached it onto his clock-up pad.

"Hyper Cast Off," Kabuto muttered.

_"HYPER CAST OFF_" the Hyper Zecter said in a mono-tone voice.

"Now that's unusual," Kabuto said as he looked down at the Hyper Zecter. He suddenly saw the Hyper Zecter sending out sparks, like it was damaged or malfunctioning. Kabuto kicked a zombie into a rock, breaking it into a thousand pieces before Kabuto ran aside to examine it.

"A small fracture in the inside of the Zecter…it's sapping away the Zecter's power…but how did this happen?"

The Hyper Zecter armor was attached onto Kabuto but at a much slower rate. As the armor was attached, part of it suddenly disappeared, leaving Kabuto without the Hyper Clock Up function and part of his armor. Kabuto cursed as he summoned the Perfect Zecter, which was fortunately, still perfectly intact.

Kabuto blasted a couple of zombies that were gaining on him as he ran across a hill but soon ran into another crowd of zombies waiting for him at the bottom of the hill.

"Why do they keep coming?" Kabuto growled.

Wave after wave of zombies came to Sasword and KickHopper's path. A crowd of zombies managed to pin them down, and the zombies began tearing their armor.

"No!" Leopardo yelled as he used his "Rider Claw" on the crowd, freeing the two riders.

"They just keep coming! There's no stop to them!" Sasword yelled.

Just as Kabuto slashed at a zombie, a stream of lasers shot a bunch of the zombies in the face, bringing them down. Kabuto stared at the direction the lasers were shot, it was a platoon of armored cars. At that instant, Kabuto knew it was Kagami's army.

"Hey Tendou!" Gatack yelled as he opened the window.

"You took long enough," Kabuto grumbled as he shot a zombie's head clean off.

Some of the cars stopped to drop off a couple of riders, who began running towards the zombies. Other cars made circles or other patterns and shot at the zombies. Leopardo, Sasword, and KickHopper rested for a bit and then finished their job. The zombies stopped appearing afterwards.

"Sylvester?" TheBee, known as James asked.

"No," Faisal said as he took off his Zecter.

"What the hell…?" James asked.

"It's the damn traitor!" a rider yelled.

"Kill him!" a second rider said.

"No wait! We should hear him out," Draco suddenly said, stepping in front of Faisal.

Draco turned to him. "I don't know how the fuck you survived that mountain of zombies, but what the hell happened? Why did you attack me?"

"That was a worm," Faisal said.

"And why the fuck would a worm possess him?" a rider asked.

"You! Shut up!" Draco said to the rider. "You! Keep talking!" Draco pointed to Faisal.

"As I was readying for the battle, a worm posing as me knocked me out and stole the Unicorn Belt, he left me for dead and I found myself in the path of a falling skyscraper. I found the Leopardo Zecter half dead and managed to fix it, Tendou found me and I had managed to survive," Faisal explained.

"He's bullshitting," another rider said.

"Remember that he ATTACKED you?!" a third one asked.

"I would never attack my friends!" Faisal challenged.

"That's true. He was a big help to us. Zombies were on us and if he didn't interrupt, we would be dead," Yaguruma added.

"He told me what happened, I know an honest man when I see one. If you say that he is the man that betrayed the riders and attacked Draco Stark, I would probably be dead or he wouldn't even be here," Tendou reasoned. The riders one by one began to calm down.

"Does anyone else want to object?" Tendou shrugged and asked innocently.

* * *

><p><strong>In the middle of nowhere…<strong>

"So where are we gonna go now? Now that we've found each other," Haku asked.

"My father knows the coordinates of the Core Generators, we should go find him," Kagami replied.

A few of the riders, the main ones, were kneeling down near a table-looking rock to discuss of their future plans. Among the riders were Tendou, Kagami, Haku, Draco, Faisal, Yaguruma, and Tsurugi.

"Where is Riku Kagami now?" Yaguruma asked.

"Most likely at the ZECT bunkers, he's got a whole army of troops defending him," Draco said.

"That's not gonna do good against a crowd of zombies, the suckers never die," Tsurugi grumbled.

"I thought he would've switched his location by now, if the zombies can actually form ranks and follow commands, and if they had seen the bunkers before, he would be moved somewhere else by now…" Tendou explained.

"Speaking of which…we've been attacked before…my crewmembers were attacked after the Vorpal landed, and the zombies must know we had a secret underground bunker!" Kagami exclaimed.

"Riku Kagami and the remnants of ZECT could be dead at this moment," Haku added.

"We have to find them," Draco replied.

"Of course, and I have an idea where," Tendou said. The riders looked at him suspiciously.

"You do?" they asked.

"Grandmother once said…a man must always be prepared for the next step in his life," Tendou said, pointing up the sky.

"It's been a while since you did that," Faisal commented.

"Didn't have much time to use Grandma's quotes back then, I'm afraid to admit the zombies were a more pressing matter than my Grandma's quotes," Tendou admitted.

"If you say that Riku Kagami has moved operations, he should be somewhere in Osaka," Kagami said.

"Osaka…of course! It's the nearest city near the bunkers," Tsurugi remarked.

"There was a ZECT base there as well," Yaguruma added.

"Then it's settled, we are going to Osaka," Haku said, wrapping up the meeting.

Haku and Draco got up to tell the riders. James was holding Alex in his arms when Haku walked over to them.

"Alright no time to waste people! None of that kissy-kissy shit around here! We're goin' to Osaka!" Draco yelled, referring to the couple. They chuckled.

Kagami walked over to Tendou, who was staring at the sky.

"Ready to walk the path of heaven?" Kagami asked.

"That's what I do myself in my free time," Tendou joked.

"You got the box right?" Kagami asked.

"Yeah, you have the key?" Tendou asked.

"Right here," Kagami replied.

"Yes. Let's go with the rest of them. Ride with me," Tendou said as he got on his motorcycle, Kagami nodded and grabbed his own.

"Alright everyone! Full steam ahead! We're headed for Osaka! We'll stop by random cities and towns for gas and electricity! Get your ass in the cars and bikes!" Draco yelled with a loudspeaker. All the riders laughed as they took off.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**

**Alright! The last chapter is in the writing stage, I will try to release it as soon as possible. **

**Scratch the original idea! I am posting the last chapter along with the next chapter of Batman once both are done.**


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